Amelia
Director: Mira Nair

Every utterance by Hilary Swank in her interpretation of flying legend Amelia Earhart seems like either a motivational bromide (“What do dreams know of boundaries?”) or a statement of female empowerment (“I want to be free”).

Mira Nair’s film strives too hard to be profound and not enough to be merely human. Swank bears a resemblance to Earhart, but her problematic accent sounds more like Annie Oakley and her various declarations are almost entirely banal.

What’s lacking is any real sense of the woman behind the cardboard sentiments, the one who grew from a Kansas farm girl fascinated by flight into a record-breaking aviatrix whose mysterious 1937 disappearance over the South Pacific still fascinates the public mind.

“There’s more to life than being a passenger,” Earhart says early on, but the film ultimately takes all of us for a ride.

Extras include deleted scenes, featurettes and Movietone News.