Salt Lake Tribune Review
The life of America's pioneering female aviator, and her mysterious disappearance in 1937, are reduced in this gauzy biopic to gorgeous scenery, beautiful period costumes, and a love affair worthy of a Lifetime movie. Instead of Valerie Bertinelli in the lead, we get double-Oscar winner
Hilary Swank as the freckle-faced Earhart, spending less time flying than she does in a by-the-numbers romance with publisher George Putnam (
Richard Gere) and a brief fling with aeronautics instructor Gene Vidal (
Ewan McGregor), the father of writer
Gore Vidal. Director
Mira Nair, who brought such passion to her Indian-themed films ("The Namesake," "Monsoon Wedding," even "Vanity Fair"), is hamstrung by a bloodless script (by "Rain Man's" Ron Bass and "Gorillas in the Mist's" Anna Hamilton Phelan) that reveals Earhart's thrill of flying only through Swank's breathless narration.
-- Sean P. Means
Synopsis: Earhart's early aviation triumphs and meteoric rise to fame and fortune were propelled along by her tempestuous partnership and eventual marriage to publisher George Putnam. Bound by mutual ambition, admiration and, ultimately a great love, their bond could not be broken even with her brief passionate affair with Gene Vidal. Ms. Earhart was the first woman to solo the Atlantic and was the first pilot, man or woman, to fly unaccompanied across the Pacific. In Amelia's attempt to be the first to fly around the world in an equatorial flight her life was tragically cut short with her mysterious and untimely disappearance over the South Pacific in 1937.
