AMELIA (from a fangirl point of view!)

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I saw the film 'AMELIA' yesterday when it opened here in America, about the life of Amelia Earhart. Has anyone else seen it? What did you think? Do you think it deserved the bad reviews? The following is the review I wrote yesterday - (it was written for the fan page for Christopher Eccleston I co-moderate so is from a fan point of view) REVIEW I saw AMELIA today! And in my opinion, it didn't warrant the negative reviews I have read of it. As you have probably all read, it tells the story of Amelia Earhart in flashbacks - the movie begins with the last flight she took, with Fred Noonan and then goes back to the beginning of her story, and every so often goes back to Amelia and Fred at different stages of their flight around the world. There is some beautiful stuff in the flying sequences, I guess flying over South Africa, where much of it was filmed. Many of the reviews have said it was a kind of dry documentary style thing, just giving the facts we know in order - I see what they mean, it doesn't offer any big new take on the story, but then, its a true story, and I actually liked the voiceovers of Amelia Earhart's real writing and poetry, and the real news footage.It is, after all, the story of a real person, not so long ago. Hilary Swank (Amelia) was great. She has the advantage of already looking a lot like the real Amelia, with some freckles added by the makeup people! She had the accent down, and I thought she did a good job. I actually found it quite moving at the times when she made it through a flight and realized she was going to land ok and had done it...I think that whole feeling about following your dreams and not letting anyone tell you no came over really well - it made me think about what it would have been like for a woman doing that then - when you see, as well, the planes they were flying, you realize what a huge achievement getting across the Atlantic was. Its nice to see a movie driven by a woman - so often the only stuff we see with a woman as the central character is some silly romance thing, but this is a real story about a strong woman, portrayed by a strong actress. Ewan McGregor was good in his role (Gene Vidal) but I felt it was a bit dull. I didn't think his character was at all engaging and I kind of didn't care. Not so much his performance, but the writing of the role itself, I think. Richard Gere (George Putnam) honestly, I am not too fond of anyway - don't know why. But he was good in his role too - one part manipulative business man using Amelia for his own ends, one part loving and jealous husband. Chris Eccleston plays Fred Noonan, who was Amelia's navigator on her final flight, around the world. He doesn't have a huge amount of screen time, but in a small amount of time, he manages to create a very real character - you feel like you know who Fred is just from the couple of main scenes where he actually has dialogue. He does a decent accent, and there are certain mannerisms and facial expressions which make me wonder if he watched footage of Noonan to work on the accent etc, because there is a real distinct characterization there. All round, good value for a Chris fan. Even if the movie wasn't that good, it is an Eccleston performance to add to our collection, a good one. But the movie itself is worth seeing. I DID go away thinking about the ways in which I feel I am doing things just to please other people in my life, and about just how strong women can be if they choose to, and feeling a little inspired to say I have the choice to be what I want to, like Amelia did. The only bad thing, of course....Chris, would you please find yourself a script where you DON'T DIE??! So, anyone else like it? Hate it? Plan on seeing it? Anyone else got a thing for Eccy? Don't be ashamed, we're all friends here....