How does the director of the jubilant Monsoon Wedding and the opulent Vanity Fair create as chaste a film as Amelia?

Several factors contribute to the subdued mood of Mira Nair's Amelia Earhart biopic. Languid pacing ensures that the aviatrix's story rarely soars. Hilary Swank's decision to play the tenacious Earhart as an isolated, attention-shy loner deflates some of the story's inherent drama. No matter where you point fingers, the end result is the same. Amelia is a quiet, reserved, and unexpectedly small picture about an aviation pioneer whose historical legacy -- due in large part to her mysterious disappearance while circumnavigating the globe -- has become larger than life.

It's on that 1937 flight that Nair and scripter Ron Bass (Rain Man) focus. As Earhart attempts to become the first female pilot to circle the planet, Amelia recalls the groundbreaker's early flights and complicated loves. Richard Gere provides formidable support as George Putnam, the publishing giant who wed Earhart after building her into a national treasure despite her narrow-minded stubbornness. Theirs is a sensible romance, not a sensual one. Flying is Earhart's only passion, which is also the reason why a later affair with military veteran and Olympic hero Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor in a woefully underdeveloped role) cools.

The entire film lacks passion, in fact. Swank's Earhart is a tomboy at ease in the hangar as she tinkers on the machines she'll eventually pilot through the heavens. Yet while Nair's aerial photography is breathtaking, this drama about a prominent historical figure's unprecedented accomplishments remains earthbound. Nair's supplements -- from poetic narration to a tearful goodbye between Earhart and Putnam that can't be proven as fact -- reek of Hollywood lacquer meant to polish a dull but pedigreed biopic. Pardon the pun, but Amelia is a tepid drama that largely coasts on auto pilot.



Hey, is there a runway around here?