I was an Unsolved Mysteries kid. Still am actually. Every Wednesday night at 8, I was parked in front of the TV for another “intriguing mystery” as the late great Robert Stack would say in his steely baritone. Of course a recurrent topic for examination was the 1937 disappearance of Amelia Earhart, aviation pioneer and unintentional symbol of women’s lib. But the socio-political dynamics of the woman’s life weren’t what intrigued me as a school age kid, just the mystery about what happened Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan on July 2nd, 1937, somewhere over the vast stretch of the Pacific between New Guinea and Hawaii. The Japanese? UFOs? Splashdown? Not to worry, the new film about Earhart’s life doesn’t know either.

This Amelia is of two minds as it focuses on Earhart’s accomplishments as a pilot and the romance between her and her manager George Putnam. Hillary Swank plays Earhart and she translates well the Earhart we see in pictures and film from the time, that of the accidental celebrity. What I sensed she was lacking though was any kind of reassured confidence that I imagine being a pioneer for both air travel and one’s own gender would require. I’m not asking for Amy Adams’ “I just stepped out of the talkies” like spunk as that actress displayed in the Night at the Museum sequel, but I would have liked to have seen a little more fight, a little more spark.

Richard Gere plays Putnam, and as much as I admire how Gere still has a natural charisma about him after all these years, he’s acting here like how he thinks people in the 20s and 30s sounded and acted. Is that a bit of Cagney I detect in your accent there, Gere? I thought so. Actually how Gere sounded is a trifle, the movie is interesting because of the fact it treats Earhart as a romantic figure. I’ve seen the adventurer, I’ve seen the unsolved mystery, but I had never seen Earhart: the love triangle. It makes me wish director Mira Nair had more confidence in that because Earhart’s reasons why she dallianced with Gene Vidal (father of Gore) was never really explained. It just kind of came and went.

In fact, there sometimes seemed a general lack of genuine emotion in the film. Images were flickering, things were happening, I understood their significance, but I really wasn’t feeling it. By the time Earhart’s doomed final flight rolls around you might be ready to cash in your chips, but don’t because this is where your emotional punch is. Putnam’s concern, through Gere, is palpable and Swank paints this wonderful tapestry of fear, hope and failure with nothing but the look on her face. Everything right down to the editing is really well done, ending the film on a poignant, bittersweet note. I just wish that the rest of the movie had been like this.

But overall, working in Amelia’s favour is a sense of nostalgia. Those bygone days when air travel was a gentlemanly pursuit, as Sideshow Bob once observed. But it was also a time when the dangers were that much more dangerous. The notion of flying across the Atlantic, which now happens hundreds of times a day, was an Icarus like pursuit. Even after Charles Limburgh proved it could be done, 14 guys died following in his footsteps until Amelia Earhart recreated the accomplishment. Amelia is great history if nothing else, but it would have been nice if it could have been more. There was a wonderful talent at this film’s disposal and the result is disappointingly disengaging. A fate worse than disappearing without a trace, I’m afraid.