AMELIA

AMELIA (Fox Searchlight)
Directed by Mira Nair

With the news that the coveted Best Picture category from the Academy Awards has grown from five films to ten, I have wondered how early a film might be considered for the race. In the past, rarely a film released prior to November 1st would even be looked at, much less recognized, but all that gets thrown out the window now, right? One would think so, but until next year when those nominations roll out, we won't know for sure. So, in the mean time, we can speculate and although there hasn’t been a whole lot of 'great' in the past couple months, you just never know, which is why a film like AMELIA has a chance to be nominated. History tells us biopic’s or biographical films tend to be looked at differently and often rewarded come the time when it matters; so despite any negativity hovering over this film, weeks after its release, it does has a legitimate chance to be nominated in a few categories and maybe even Best Picture if there’s not a whole lot else to pick from. That’s just the reality of the situation, as I see it; because frankly I’ve seen a lot better and a lot worse be nominated, placing this film somewhere in the middle of having at least a shot, which is probably all the producers want at the end of the day.

AMELIA, as anticipated, is based loosely off the real-life heroine Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank), who defied odds and became one of the most respected women in history by becoming the first to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. While setting numerous other flying records, she became an icon to women by also publishing several acclaimed novels and teaching other women to go after their dreams. But, flying was her passion and for a long time, was all that mattered to her. It wasn’t until she met and married George Putnam (Richard Gere), her publicist, that her life started to change as it wasn’t cheap to be a pilot. For Earhart, flying was more than just getting up in the air for a quick spin. She was free when she flew and would do anything to keep that feeling alive. And with the help of George, she did just that writing about her adventures and using her fame to her advantage, being a spokesperson for many products back then and one of the first to do so in a manner that supported her passion. In doing so, however, she was looked at differently and as someone who was given fame without effort, thus forcing her into an internal battle to prove to the entire world she deserved to be where she was. It was then she set the record for flying over the Atlantic and eventually set in motion the plan to fly around the world. So, after a botched takeoff attempt from Hawaii, Swank and her expert navigator, Frank Noonan (Christopher Eccleston) were off on the adventure of a lifetime; one that would proves to be quite successful until the last leg across the transpacific, where a tricky refueling was scheduled at the tiny Howland Island. It was then everything changed, for this great adventure was about to come to a crashing end, as Earhart and Noonan would never arrive at that island, losing radio contact and ultimately vanishing without a trace, leaving a long trail of theories on what really happened that day.

Most biopic’s or some version thereof have no problem garnering up chatter when it comes to acclaim and awards, as history has told us that; but the actor or actress still has to go out and do it, which sometimes isn’t as easy as it might seem. A couple years ago when Jamie Foxx took the country by storm with this portrayal in RAY, no one was better, as the effort put forth by Foxx was easily rewarded. Same could be said for Sean Penn for his part in MILK last year, but this isn’t always the case. Many times these roles go unnoticed and often do not get rewarded, much less nominated for various speculative reasons. Obviously one reason could be it was a lousy portrayal, but often times, a great performance can get overlooked simply due to lack of visibility or a notable surrounding cast. However in AMELIA, there’s plenty of acting credentials to go around, so when Hilary Swank gets snubbed from her role as the famed pilot come January next year, we will know it was because of the lack of visibility. The one thing I do know is Richard Gere did anything but bring her down, adding his own noteworthy performance, one in which that might find its way onto the ballot as sometimes it’s easier for the Academy to reward the supporter, than the lead. But make no mistake about it, both Gere and Swank were good here and although I could find some holes in their performances at times, it didn’t deter from the enjoyment of watching them each on the big screen, as you couldn’t help but be drawn into their characters.

When it comes to films like AMELIA, it’s hard not to place it into the Oscar pool, as it just has that look and feel, but maybe that’s the problem. Too often we will take a film like this and force some unreachable accolades on it, when in reality, it’s just meant to tell a good story, like many other films. AMELIA does that easily, but to me, it did more in showing you don’t always have to create good out of a bad story, meaning the fate of Amelia Earhart was known long before any of us sat down to watch the film, so to go overboard with unwarranted slights of how the story ended would be outright ludicrous. I was glad the writers chose to do what they did with the ending, as there’s no need to get into any theories or notion that something may or may not have happened to the famed aviatrix. And director Mira Nair respected that, proving there is a host of ways to still honor the legend, no matter how they left this world. And to me, that’s what this film was, a tribute to Amelia Earhart and how she revolutionized aviation in her own little way. So while there could have been more background detail into how she came to love to fly so much, I can’t complain too much for a story that was fairly smooth throughout, offering little to no bumps along the way. If anything, it didn’t wow you enough, but maybe it wasn’t supposed to as we already knew how this tragic story ended.

For a film that may or may not have legs come Oscar time, AMELIA sure had a lot of heart, which counts for something when you start to list out the good and bad from 2009. So, while there might not be as much praise for this film as I would have thought initially, it’s still worth watching for the history lesson and cast, which was better than most when it was all said and done.

B+