Tag: Anna Hamilton Phelan


Amelia

January 16th, 2010 — 2:17am

Amelia* * *
Amelia
– sp – Most people know the story of Amelia Earhart, the famous female pilot who tried to fly around the world and disappeared. So when Hollywood decides to make a biopic about this famous aviatrix, it might not be easy to come up with any big surprises in the story, which was the case with this movie. Ted Waitt a wealthy businessman was always interested in this story and decided to put up all the money if necessary, and produce this movie. He brought in Oscar awardee screen writer Ron Bass (Rainman) who told us that he wrote 7 drafts of the movie and emphasized the fact that Ms Earhart had an alcoholic father who rejected her and led to her trying to achieve some kind of affirmation from men and also through her accomplishments of doing what no one has ever done. The Director whom they had on board left the project and Mira Nair came on to direct and brought on well know writer Anna Hamiliton Phelan (Gorillas in the Mist) who did 13 rewrite versions and ultimately emphasized Amelia’s love of flying and the great feminist hero status that she became. Hilary Swank was chosen for the lead and Richard Gere was given the role of her promoter and the person whom she ultimately married. Swank gave the character great likeability and conveyed the determination, which dominated her. Ultimately we found there was not enough of this character to hold our attention. Not only were there no surprises in the movie but despite Ms Swank’s fine performance, there was not much depth or intrigue in the film’s portrayal of this great American hero. We believe that Mr. Bass’s vision of the character perhaps would have offered more to the movie. There were some wonderful flying scenes, beautiful landscapes, well done period clothes and a full strong soundtrack. The interspersing of some actual newsreels was also a nice touch. (2009)

Comment » | 3 Stars, Biography, Drama

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