Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry, Million Dollar Baby) is in tomboy mode again here, but she lacks a sure stance as 1930s aviatrix Amelia Earhart - the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Earhart talks about living free as a bird, but Monsoon Wedding director Mira Nair doesn't show us what really makes her tick. Most importantly, it's not made clear why she is willing to risk a happy life (married to a curmudgeonly Richard Gere) to circumnavigate the globe in a flying tin can. The film is also a disorientating experience, as Nair flits between timelines without logic, or a sense of what's at stake in each daredevil expedition - even the basic dangers of aviation in the era do not translate. Amelia's extramarital jaunt with Gene Vidal (father of Gore, played by Ewan McGregor) is just as lacking in tension. Sadly, an extraordinary life winds up feeling like a series of random blips on the radar screen.

A look at the life of legendary American pilot Amelia Earhart, who disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to make a flight around the world.