Having an Indian woman, Mira Nair, direct a film about one of America’s most notorious female heroes proved an inspired decision. Nair has produced a fascinating and moving portrait of the intrepid pilot who disappeared in 1937 while endeavoring to fly around the world. Growing up in India, Nair was unfamiliar with Earhart’s extraordinary story and tragic death and so was able to approach the subject more objectively. As a consequence she was, with the help of Ron Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan’s excellent script, able to focus more on Earhart the woman than the legend.
The tomboyish-looking Earhart, with her penchant for trousers and short bobbed hair, is perfectly embodied by the equally mannish Hilary Swank. The double Oscar-winning actress will no doubt be in the running for a third statue with her powerful performance that captures both the strengths and vulnerability of Earhart’s complex character. Earhart’s fateful end provides the film with its prevailing sense of tragedy while her impassioned personality instills it with a palpable energy.
From the outset, when Earhart proclaims “Flying lets me move in three dimensions,” before adding “Who wants a life in prison and safety,” we’re made aware of her bold adventurous spirit and determination. Growing up in an age where her emancipated outlook was at odds with the very male dominated society, Earhart’s courage in the air was matched by her tenacity on the ground. Set against the economic hardships of depression-era America, she was as enthusiastic about promoting the cause of women as she was about being a pioneering aviator.
At its core, Amelia is a love story, a romance between Earhart and flying. Along the way she finds herself caught up, almost reluctantly, in a more conventional relationship with the wealthy publisher George Putnam (Richard Gere), though even the terms of their marriage is anything but conventional. Putnam initially hires her to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, but her involvement was more for the accompanying publicity than for her flying skills which weren’t required as she was strictly a passenger. But even in that capacity she became an instant national hero. Feeling like a fraud, she was determined to prove herself as she set about her ambition of becoming a “vagabond of the air.”
Amelia focuses on Earhart’s conflict of balancing her desire to fly with the constraints of normal life. In need of money to fund her adventures, she is forced into marketing herself and becomes an unenthusiastic shill, endorsing all manner of products including a line of clothing and a range of luggage. While caught up in the whirlwind of celebrity and the complexities of an affair with a flying instructor (Ewan McGregor), she finds herself yearning for the exhilaration that only flying can bring her.
Rooted by the outstanding performances of both Swank and Gere, Amelia offers an absorbing glimpse of an era where the brave exploits of an extraordinary woman was able to provide a welcome distraction from the pervasive poverty and hardship. There’s a part in most if us who envy the courage it takes to be a pioneer. Amelia does justice to both the romanticism and reality of one of the truly great ones.
Kevin Murphy
