Biopics are almost impossible to do well. Life doesn't happen in a three act structure, so modern narrative filmmaking isn't really suited to biography.

The exception that proves the rule is the Queen which tells the story of only a single incident in a persons life.

Can't Hilary Swank diversify?

In her next movie, she needs to play a floozy.

Or a Scarlett Johansson-type seductress.

There really doesn't seem much of a story there. Her death was unusual, and she was subjected to the Elvis/Jim Morrison thing about "she's alive under an assumed identity." It's seems pretty well proven at this point that she did in fact die, and that she wasn't involved in an secret government assignment. So her diappearance is no longer any kind of haunting mystery.

I was under the impression she was bisexual (Gore Vidal referenced this in one of his novels, Kalki. I have no idea if the character who said this was meant to be accurate or not), but the movie seems to be avoiding this. Not that the subject in itself would make the movie more interesting.

I don't find Lindberg fascinating, either.

Amelia Earhart was one of my very first heroines, and I was hoping this movie would live up to the person it intended to depict.

Sad when it doesn't, although if Richard Gere is in it, I'll gladly watch it.

Guess that movies fail when the person being played was really too larger than life to accurately portray well, especially when the time evoked is a relatively remote one for most movie watchers.

After all, this happened over 60 years ago.

I mean, why else would Salon pay attention to it at all?

to see how they depict her as a pilot.

I suspect that they gloss over the fact that she relied too much on luck and instinct and too little on skill, knowledge and instinct. She left vital radio equipment behind and didn't really understand radio direction finding. More than once she ignored the directions of her navigator.

Still, she's a fascinating person, and the casting of Swank is pure genius.

Do they still make the luggage?

Time to crank up the mighty Movie Review Generator:

Astro Boy: Out of this world!

Saw VI: Saw it, need an IV!

Cirque du Freak: Toothless!

The Invention of Lying: I'd be lying if I said I loved this movie!

The Boys are Back: But I'm out of here!

The Hangover: You'll drink to forget this movie!

Good Hair: Bad movie!

Amelia: Bail out!

Can no one at Salon explain to you how commas work?

Or, as you, might write,, "Can, no one,,, at Salon, explain to, you,,,, how com,mas w,o,r,k,,,,?,"

Worst.

Writer.

Ever.

And that is really too bad, as Swank literally looks as if she was born to play this lookalike icon whose end was shrouded in such mystery. I hear the bisexuality angle was hinted at in the movie scene where Amelia comments on another woman's looks to the Vidal character.

At least it sounds as though Swank won't be taking home another undeserved Oscar next March. Her win for the dreadful Million $ Baby was galling.

I haven't liked most of her films, even though I've appreciated many of those films' previously unexplored subjects. Her style of storytelling lacks forward momentum, which is another way of saying it's "random" (which is another way of saying it's "sloppy" ... which is another way of saying it's "boring").

Hollywood really isn't about making good movies anymore.

The worse the product is the more it is hyped and sold.

And the public loves stupid and flawed movies and that make ots off money.

Americans have little taste and less culture.

Watch indies, foreign films, old films and go to film festivals if you want to see real movies.

Hollywood is laundering money, not making cinema.

seoigh is fixated on Stephanie's supposed misuse of commas (I don't see it, frankly), but continues to read every one of her reviews. Seems a poor way to spend one's time.

And yes, I realize that it probably isn't the best use of my time to comment on a post that doesn't have anything to do with the original review...

Swank tried to play a seductress once, in Brian de Palma's Black Dahlia, opposite Scarlett Johansen yet. Believe me, she's better off sticking to noble.

... partly because I was hoping for a really good Amelia Earhart flick, and partly because when Hilary Swank is good, she's very, very good. But mostly she's not. I don't know if she just has bad luck in directors, or choices of roles, or what. She's clearly got talent, but for whatever reasons we don't see it often enough.

Oh, ginseng? Have you not seen "Boys Don't Cry". That was one of the times Swank was very, very good and her character was definitely not "noble". He was admirable in some ways and in other ways he was not, but nobility was not one of his qualities.

I recently saw an earlier Amelia Earhart film on Cinemax (I believe) that was actually quite good. It apparently was a 1976 television production starring Susan Clark and John Forsythe. The production values were quite good and I didn't even realize it was a TV movie until I noticed it listed on Wikipedia. It was in a wide screen HD format that looked terrific on my big HD projection screen.

This film did deal with Earhart's flying skills and stubborn ways quite well. It portrayed her as being a bit reckless and caviler on her doomed last flight, leaving behind equipment (a trailing antenna) that could have allowed her to communicate with the ship much better.

If you get a chance to see it, do so.

Why don't you figure out how to write in complete sentences?

Or as you would write. Complete. Sentences.

Worst.

Critic.

Of critics

Ever.

...it's probably asking a lot of Hollywood to depict her piloting accurately. People who will see this aren't necessarily interested in flying- it's an American hero(ine) story. Unfortunately, her disappearance has led many people to focus on alleged faulty piloting skills, but the more complicated issue with her flying is that she was just pushed too far too fast. She may well have ended up a fabulously skilled pilot- she certainly had a good start- but the show business of her accomplishments got the better of both her and her promoter husband, Putnam. If she had made the last flight, we most likely would never have questioned her skills. Anyway, this is far more interesting a story than just the heroic adventurousness of an early aviatrix.

And on the topic of early aviatrices, it's a little disappointing to me that among all of the very talented early women pilots who were my idols before I got my own start in aviation, the Amelia story eclipses them all. Who has heard of Bessie Coleman or Jackie Cochran? Certainly their stories are no less interesting.