Picture this scene from Mira Nair’s new film Amelia. As Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank) prepares to take off, something goes terribly wrong. Instead of lifting smoothly off the ground, the plane jerks suddenly out of her control. The wheels come spinning away and the plane screeches to fiery halt on its belly, leaving its shaken passengers to clamor out to safety.

While the film itself doesn’t burn on the runway, Amelia does have some trouble getting off the ground. The actors require the better half of the movie to grow into their roles, and even then, it is hard to feel any deep connection with the characters. Richard Gere is strangely meek and passive as the wily George Putnam — and his sudden burst of animation in the second half of the movie is less rewarding than it is baffling.

Swank is competent, if not exceptional, in the title role. She certainly looks uncannily like the real Earhart, and she carries herself with the grace and dignity of a public icon. The film plays up Amelia’s free-spirited nature and touches briefly on her discomfort in the public eye, but it fails to dig deeper into the character. Once the film gets up in the air, it is a smooth and uneventful ride — free of turbulence but also the emotion that accompanies it.

From an artistic standpoint, Amelia is beautifully put together, complete with state-of-the-art cinematography and spliced together with real footage of Earhart’s journeys. The downside of these clips is that we sometimes feel we are watching a historical documentary. The ending comes as no surprise to anyone, but here the film misses out on its chance to be original. Rather than offering an emotional interpretation, the film leaves us where history leaves us: it simply disappears into thin air.

With the disappearance of Earhart on that final flight comes the disintegration of the movie’s attempts at deeper meaning. The film attempts to make up for this through the use of thematic voice-overs, yet this is not as effective as truly rounded characters and a developed story. In the end, Amelia is mildly entertaining, but it fails to lift us off the ground the way a truly great movie would.

Overall Ranking: B

Bottom line: The movie has potential and some truly beautiful moments, but as a whole, I would not run to see it.