AMELIA

"An instant Classic" Ray Bennet

 I am drawn to every news story about the attempts to solve the mystery of Amelia Earhart's disappearance on July 2, 1937. It's pretty clear she ditched at sea, but you just never know. It is not her disappearance but her life that fascinates me. She was strong, brave and true, and she looked fabulous in a flight suit. Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor), the founder of TWA and father of Gore, told his son he loved her but didn't marry her "because I didn't want to marry a boy." Hilary Swank uncannily embodies Earhart in Mira Nair's Amelia. She looks like her, smiles like here, evokes her. Swank is an actress who doesn't fit in many roles, but when she's right, she's right. Amelia tells this story with sound performances and impeccable period detail. She was an early feminist role model. She married the famous New York publisher G.P. Putnam (Richard Gere). It was love at first sight for George, and forever after for both of them…Amelia is a perfectly sound biopic, well directed and acted, about an admirable woman. It confirmed for me Earhart's courage -- not only in flying, but in insisting on living her life outside the conventions of her time for well-behaved females. --Roger Ebert