Aviation biopic fails to get off the ground.

AMELIA **

PG

IT'S not the stars of the movie who shine in this dull biopic about Amelia Earhart - the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic - it's Stuart Dryburgh, Stephanie Carroll and Kasia Walicka-Maimone.

They are the cinematographer, production designer and costume designer, who earn their wings and most of the praise. Top marks go to them for making a technically sumptuous looking movie but in terms of story and direction Amelia fails to take off.

With her androgynous costumes, cropped and copper-toned hair, two time Oscar winner Hilary Swank is a dead ringer for the aviatrix.

The story flips back and forward in an annoying narrative and there's little here that gets to the heart of Earhart.

She became the most famous women of her time, who captured the world's imagination and inspired millions to love flying. Shame you never really get a true sense of that.

We learn that she fell in love with and married her agent, George Putnam (Richard Gere) who masterminded all sorts of moneyspinning endorsements and publicity stunts.

During her marriage, though, she had a fling with Gere Vidal (writer and actor Gore Vidal's father) played by Ewan McGregor doing yet another woeful American accent.

We learn a lot about where she went and what she wore but by the end of the movie, she remains as mysterious as her disappearance in 1937 somewhere over the Pacific Ocean in a bid to circumnavigate the globe.

Swank defiantly looks the part but her performance is stilted, perhaps because of the dull script and she shares little chemistry with Gere.

Director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) offers some rigid direction that makes the film feel as though it is some glossy TV mini-series circa 1984.

A major disappointment.

CAPTION(S):

DISAPPOINTING: Swank gives a stilted performance GOT THE LOOK: But the film's not great