Masand's Verdict: Amelia tries desperately to be inspirational

irector: Mira Nair

Star Cast: Hillary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor

Amelia, director Mira Nair's biopic of celebrated aviatrix Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928, is a stilted, plodding bore of a film that fails to take-off in spite of its subject matter.

Starring Hillary Swank as the fearless tomboy-ish Earhart, the film tries desperately to be inspirational, but it's held together by a superficial script that packs in embarrassing clichés and clunky dialogue that drain out much of the drama her life-story contains.

Adhering to the standard biopic formula, the film limits its focus to about a decade during which Earhart takes her first trans-atlantic flight in 1928, to her disappearance somewhere over the Pacific in 1937. Earhart is an unquestionably fascinating subject for a film, but Nair never gives us a sense of what drove her heroine to such courageous heights.

To make matters worse, there is very little chemistry between Swank and Richard Gere, who plays her publisher-cum-business manager husband George Putnam, who compels her to endorse luggage and cigarettes. Even more awkwardly handled, is the love affair between Earhart and aviation entrepreneur Gene Vidal (played by Ewan McGregor).

Hampered by an over-reverential portrait of its subject, the film comes off as frustratingly old-school, and in the end, it sadly lacks the very quality that was most attractive about Earhart - her willingness to take risks.

Two-time Oscar winning actress Hillary Swank delivers a performance as wooden as the plane she flies, and although she smiles a lot when airborne, it does not make up for this awful, awful film.

There is, nevertheless, some excellent cinematography and period production design on display here, but come on, that's hardly a reason to watch a film!

I'm going with one-and-a-half out of five for Mira Nair's Amelia. It's ironic they made such a simplistic, safe film about a woman as daring as this!