"AMELIA" LACKS SPIRITUAL LIFT TO A HIGHER PLANE

"Amelia" is a different kind of chick flick. It is a sweet movie about the pioneering aviatrix Amelia Earhart. What makes it sweet is the performance of Hilary Swank -- looking more boyish than ever with short-cropped hair and a fondness for men's neckties -- and the direction of Mira Nair ("Mississippi Masala," "Vanity Fair").

 Even today we all know that Earhart was pretty famous when her plane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean, in the vicinity of Howland Island, a terribly tiny atoll which was supposed to be the essential re-fueling stop in her long leap to the next landfall. That was 1937. Earhart was 39 years old, a career barnstormer for the equal rights of women everywhere, and a huge target of irresponsibility for all men doing what they could to slow down the feminist movement.

Earhart was reckless and philandering, using "freedom" as the magic word to let her do whatever she darn well pleased. Married to the publisher and promoter George Putnam, she was also very close friends with Gene Vidal (the father of Gore Vidal). Earhart also had the remarkable foresight to get Putnam to sign a prenuptial agreement that both of them were entitled to lives of free love without guilt or disrespect.

None of these elements become major plot points in "Amelia," which serves best as a luxurious after-school special about the Lady Lindy, America's sweetheart of the skies, whose accomplishments with early aircraft are quite remarkable in their own right.

Men with female companions can be thankful "Amelia" wasn't done with an angry feminist edge, trashing and bashing about the patriarchal society that snuffed out Earhart's life so dramatically. It is pointed out that Earhart's navigator on her final flight was an over-sexed man with a drinking problem (though he was also identified as the nation's top celestial navigator).

And some nameless U.S. Navy man let the battery discharge on the one piece of navigational equipment on Howland Island that presumably could have saved Earhart and her weak-willed navigator.

But for the most part, Nair and Swank buddy up to make "Amelia" a warm fuzzy flick to inspire tweener girls just getting a sense of possibility in their own independence.

Richard Gere as Putnam nearly steals the show just because he is Richard Gere, an actor who grows more graceful and appealing the older he becomes. As Swank pours on the kind of starchy determinism identified with Kathryn Hepburn, Gere just has Putnam purr with patience for this feisty lady in his life.

Ewan McGregor is totally wasted as the equally good-natured world-class pilot Gene Vidal. We assume Earhart and Vidal shared a magnetic attraction because they also shared the deepest thrill for aviation. But we never get to see any of that.

Which leaves us with "Amelia" the chick flick. Fun for the girls out on a date. Not so much fun for their boyfriends.

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