Hilary Swank plays the pilot who didn’t see why her sex should limit her ambitions, with Richard Gere the older husband who steered her towards celebrity.

The Earhart story is one that should be impossible to make dull, but director Mira Nair (Vanity Fair, Salaam Bombay) has a go by crowbarring in lots of dreary love interest.

Swank turns in a decent enough performance but is hampered in her efforts to be convincing by wearing what looks like a dead guineapig on her head (Earhart’s hairdo was practical, not insane). Gere mopes around a lot, while Ewan McGregor has another stab at an American accent as he plays Gene Vidal, father to a certain Gore. As Vidal never said, aye right.

Amelia (PG)

***

Dir: Mira Nair

With: Hilary Swank, Ewan McGregor, Richard Gere