Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank gives Earhart a convincing Kansas twang but little else in a performance that is unaccountably stiff.
Comment
11/12/09
Amelia (2009)
11
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:28
Fresh:3
Rotten:25
Average Rating:4.2/10
Consensus: Amelia takes the compelling raw materials of its subject’s life and does little with them, conventionally ticking off Earhart's accomplishments without exploring the soul of the woman.
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $13,766,323
Synopsis: Visionary. Lover. Dreamer. Fighter. Legend. Icon. AMELIA. An extraordinary life of adventure, celebrity and continuing mystery comes to light in AMELIA, a vast, thrilling account of legendary... [More]
Starring: Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston
Director: Mira Nair
Reviews for Amelia
1 - 19 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Top CriticHilary Swank captures her beautifully.
11/11/09
Top CriticTowards the end, as the story returns to that round-the-world flight, the suspense kicks in, and Swank’s performance comes into its own.
11/11/09
Top CriticThe period detail is brilliantly brought to life, but the film is superficial, lacking the passion of its heroine.
11/11/09
Top CriticSwanks’ clear shot at a third statuette is blocked by hulkingly dull writing and direction that could point the way towards a definitive cure for insomnia.
11/11/09
Top CriticAmelia reminds us how little we really know about the lives of famous achievers who changed the world, and underlines the power of biography on screen. It's a creatively and technically accomplished film with thrills and emotional action in equal measure
11/05/09
Top CriticRomance edges ahead of adventure or characterisations and as a result, despite a soaring lead performance by Hilary Swank, the film suffers from a fatal dose of melodrama
11/05/09
Top CriticMuch like one of Earhart's trans-Atlantic flights Amelia just goes on and on without deviation.
11/15/09
Top CriticSwank’s moving performance, the period dressing and beautiful planes all appeal, but dramatically it doesn’t really soar.
11/13/09
Top CriticHilary Swank is forced to deliver dialogue that sounds as if it was written in Chinese and then translated into English by a computer.
11/13/09
Top CriticA tinny and barnacled affair, showcasing a peculiarly awful performance from Hilary Swank.
11/13/09
Top CriticAmelia is handsome yet predictable and high-minded -- not a dud, exactly, but too proper, too reserved for its swaggering subject.
10/26/09
Top CriticAlas, excesses of any pleasurable kind are absent from this exasperatingly dull production.
10/23/09
Top CriticLook, nobody's asking for a miniseries here, but at times the movie feels more like a History Channel documentary -- respectful to the point of reverential -- than a rip-snorting yarn.
10/23/09
Top CriticAmelia goes airborne but never fully soars. It's hampered by a too-reverential portrait of the record-breaking aviator.
10/23/09
Top CriticAmelia leaves you wondering how its abundantly gifted director, Mira Nair, and its Oscar-winning star, Hilary Swank, could have been complicit in such clumsiness.
10/22/09
Top CriticAmelia is a perfectly sound biopic, well directed and acted, about an admirable woman.
10/22/09
Top CriticHistory can weigh heavily on a filmmaker, and that is what happens with Amelia, a disappointing rendering of the remarkable life of Amelia Earhart.
10/22/09
Top CriticTo say that Amelia never gets off the ground would be an understatement; it barely makes it out of the hangar.
10/18/09
Top Critic1 - 19 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Latest News for Amelia
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October 22, 2009:
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When Hilary Swank takes to the sky in "Amelia" this weekend, she'll be adding to Hollywood's long -- and, yes, rather bumpy -- fascination with flight. More...
October 08, 2009:
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