There isn’t room on Hilary Swank’s mantelpiece for a third Oscar, surely? Her portrait of the Atlantic-hopping aviatrix Amelia Earhart is a rich, spirited rendition of a courageous, independent woman for whom even the sky wasn’t the limit. But the performance is marooned in this handsome but conventional and inert film. Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) escorts us on a tour of her heroine’s glory years, 1928-37, interspersing unexciting aerial footage with mild romantic complications in the form of the PR guru Earhart married (Richard Gere), and an affair with Gore Vidal’s dad (Ewan McGregor). The last flight does generate some tension, but it’s a long haul getting there.
PG (89min)