'Amelia'

'Amelia'(PG) **

Writers: Ron Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan based on novels "East To the Dawn" and "The Sound of Wings"
Director: Mira Nair
Starring: Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, Cherry Jones

Hilary Swank is one of my favorite actresses because she stands out from the crowd of other actresses. She is unconventionally beautiful and when you see her on talk shows she is warm, sweet and you fall in love with her instantly. Every role she takes is always interesting and she puts her heart into it 100% all the time. It is disappointing then when a movie she is in fails her. "Amelia" looks beautiful and the flying sequences are extremely well handled but the rest is stifling and dull. When it is in the air the movie is very interesting and entertaining. Swank is again flawless with her creation of Amelia Earhart. When we see real pictures and film of the real Amelia we know Swank has nailed it. When "Amelia" is on the ground I couldn't care less. Did Amelia really have that dull and uninteresting of a love life as it unfolds here? There is no chemistry between Swank and Gere or McGregor through no fault of their own. The dialogue is cliche and stale and I found nothing that made me want to follow any of her relationships. I wish the movie was all flying sequences and more about her determination to fly and her love and dedication to it. We get that in the beginning and end but we have to sit through the dull stuff in the middle. Mira Nair(Monsoon Wedding) is a great director who always captures the heart of a film and the movie looks good but that heart is missing. Is it just that the material is not there? I didn't learn anything new about Amelia and I felt no emotion or thrill, I just sat there and now looking back I can't remember anything interesting to tell you about the movie.