How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:139
Fresh:28
Rotten:111
Average Rating:4.4/10
Consensus: Amelia takes the compelling raw materials of its subject’s life and does little with them, conventionally ticking off Earhart's accomplishments without exploring the soul of the woman.
Rated: PG [See Full Rating]
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:13-11-2009
Synopsis: Visionary. Lover. Dreamer. Fighter. Legend. Icon. AMELIA. An extraordinary life of adventure, celebrity and continuing mystery comes to light in AMELIA, a vast, thrilling account of legendary... [More]
Starring: Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston
Director: Mira Nair
The film discreetly tiptoes around rumors of Earhart's reputed bisexuality ("Maybe at one time," she says) and her relationship with aviation pioneer Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor impersonating a department-store dummy).
Better luck trying to find out what truly happened to the real Earhart than trying to diagnose all that's wrong with this hapless film.
The film comes across as both hopelessly dated and as a shortchanging of the true tale of one of the 20th century's pioneers.
"Who wants a life imprisoned in safety?" Amelia asks in a voice-over. And you want to shout, "This movie does, honey." There’s not a real or spontaneous minute in it.
Director Mira Nair dresses that up with visual grace, with shots of clouds and sky that are beautiful and elusive enough to escape the tinge of cliche. But the basic bones of the story are the problem here.
It leaves the odd impression of being merely a very long trailer for a film you'd actually love to see.
Top CriticCourting Oscar with unseemly lust, while also promoting Earhart as an early feminist, the film strives too hard to be profound and not enough to be merely human.
his embalmed drama is a ghost from the '80s, a decade that regularly produced surprise-free, caramelized biopics. The airless Amelia is missing practically everything.
Dear Hilary Swank: We've seen your spunky act. Do you have anything else? Signed, Everyone.
Amelia is a conventional, competent and often very pretty film; it's just never as interesting as the woman at its center.
When (Swank) steps into the right role, she wears and inspires it like Denzel Washington.
Shallow and superficial, it's far better suited to the Biography channel than the big-screen.
Earhart must have been more interesting than the film makes her out to be, and more magnetic than the airhead as Swank interprets her.
Amelia goes airborne but never fully soars. It's hampered by a too-reverential portrait of the record-breaking aviator.
In the running for the dullest, most lifeless biopic of the decade.
A cast full of actors who seem to believe that playing people who lived in the past requires affectations that make them all sound like newsreel announcers.
So forgettable that I'm almost happy Fox Searchlight held the film back for week-of-release screenings because if I saw this awhile ago, I wouldn't remember enough about it to write a review.
Instead of soaring alongside Amelia, we're left grounded by a script that spends too much time on her love life and not enough time on what made her an extraordinary woman.
If ... you have completed a third grade social studies class, this biopic will only tell you what you already know then tell you a third time but not before telling you a second time.
Stiff biopic of the legendary flier skims the surface of her achievements but never quite takes off.
October 22, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Astro Boy Doesn't Quite Soar
This week at the movies, we've got an anime hero (Astro Boy, with voice work from Kristen Bell and Nicolas Cage); a vampire war ( Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant,... More...
October 22, 2009:
Hollywood's Turbulent Relationship with Flight 
When Hilary Swank takes to the sky in "Amelia" this weekend, she'll be adding to Hollywood's long -- and, yes, rather bumpy -- fascination with flight. More...
October 08, 2009:
New: Brand New Trailer and Poster Here.
More...
June 28, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review
More...
Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.
Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.
IGN.com |
GameSpy |
Comrade |
Arena |
FilePlanet |
GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox |
Planets |
Vaults |
VE3D |
CheatsCodesGuides |
GameStats |
GamerMetrics
AskMen.com |
Rotten Tomatoes |
Direct2Drive |
Green Pixels
IGN RSS Feeds
Comment
