"Adequate" is the name of the game in Mira Nair's ("Monsoon Wedding" "The Namesake") biopic of the iconic American pilot Amelia Earhart. With other subjects, adequate may have been fine — but for this particular woman and vehicle, "adequate" just doesn't pack enough firepower to get the film off the runway and soaring into space. (Puns totally intended.)
Earhart not only altered the course of American aviation history, she also laid the groundwork for feminism and women's rights long before the notion got through to American society at large — and she did it all during the 1930s' Great Depression, when the whole nation was feeling down in the dumps. Her story deserves more than an adequate effort — surely there's enough romance, fantasy and mystery (she and her plane disappeared during a round-the-world flight in 1937) to ensure a glorious action pic, crammed to the gills with incident and adventure.
It's hard to pinpoint what goes wrong in "Amelia." The cast is way above reproach, with the title role played with conviction by two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank (whose resemblance to the real Earhart is so close it's eerie). Her husband, publisher George Putnam, is played by a still-gorgeous Richard Gere, and the role of Amelia's trusted navigator, Fred Noonan, goes to Christopher Eccleston. Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh makes sure each frame is soaked in gorgeous, golden light — almost but not quite sepia-toned to accentuate the period. Director Nair constructs some memorable moments — the scene where Earhart lies in a wheat field looking up at the brilliant Kansas sky stretching to infinity above her is an eloquent testimonial to her passion for flying. Yet, the story makes no attempt to get beyond connecting-the-numbers banality: Nair seems content to play it safe, tell it straight and go home.