Swank soars as Earhart but movie is just a fart.

// November 5th, 2009 // Film & Script Reviews

Story by: Miss. Peliculera

Hilary Swank pimps out a pilot’s cap to become Amelia Earhart, legendary ’30s aviator and folk hero. But in this by the numbers, snoozer of a biopic, the two-time Oscar winner gets lost in them clouds she flies through.

Director Mira Nair gives us a version of the world-famous pilot’s life that adds up to little more than another cheesy love story—with some kick ass aerial sequences.

In 1928, Earhart was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic—although as a passenger not a pilot. It was all a PR stunt concocted by book publisher and publicist George Putnam (Richard Gere), and a few years later, Amelia (married to Putnam) decides she must make the flight solo to prove it to herself and all aspiring women aviators. We know where she ends up after this bright idea, oh right we don’t.

Suddenly, she’s more famous than prohibition and treated like the flavor of the week rapper in modern-day celebrity. But here, we’re fed all this bullshit generic montages and lots of ’30s-style news reels. Lots and lots of newsreels and more fucking newsreels.

Another problem most historical flicks can encounter is being too enamored with it’s subject. Earhart has a minor scandal involving a tryst with Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor), but a love triangle hardly taints her image—and here it feels strictly Lifetime.

On the plus side, having two-time Academy Award winner Swank as the famous aerial darling—who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937—ensured at least some level of craft. Despite a recognizable face and stature, she remains a chameleon of the silver screen. Never for a moment do we see Swank; she’s always Earhart.