Wah-wah! Here comes the sun.

hilary swank as amelia earhart

// April 23rd, 2008 // movie talk

Photo : http://enewsbuzz.typepad.com/ and http://www.nndb.com/

It’s just amazing how the make up artist can do these days. The left is two times Oscar winning Hilary Swank, and the right is Amelia Earhart. Yes, Swank is gonna portraits as Earhart in her new movie called Amelia.

Many people already predict that this is gonna own her the third Oscar nod. So, after playing in some “light” roles and show the world that she can looked gorgeous, Swank is ready to the things she is known best, a character’s actor. I myself very exited with this news because I was a fan of Hilary and I just can’t wait to see her in a movie where she can be able to show the world again how amazing she is. Sure, another Oscar for her will be great too although I don’t think the academy will give her the third one before Ms. Streep. But we’ll see.

The director is Mira Nair. You might know her with Monsoon Wedding or the controversial Kama Sutra. I only ever saw Kama Sutra and it has good directing and acting but the I wasn’t a fan with the story yet. She also direct a TV movie Hysterical Blindness with Uma Thurman. It was good, not great. However, somehow I have faith in her in this one.

Who is Amelia Earhart anyway?

NNDB. com wrote:

Amelia Earhart was a world famous American aviatrix whose courageous exploits and plucky personality made her an international hero and an American cultural icon in the early half of the 20th Century. Earhart was the first woman to cross the Atlantic ocean by airplane (1928), the second person and first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic (1932), the first person to fly solo across the Pacific between California and Hawaii (1935), and the first woman to compete in the National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio (1935). She also set a number of speed and altitude records and was awarded numerous high level honors and awards from American and Foreign dignitaries. On July 2, 1937, Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during one of the final legs of their equatorial round the world flight. Had they finished the crossing Earhart would have been only the second person to complete such a journey and the first woman ever to do so. The mystery of Earhart’s disappearance continues to intrigue the public and to generate scores of books, articles, and films. Popular theories for her disappearance include navigational error, capture by the Japanese military, and even UFO abduction. Earhart herself authored two books, 20 Hrs. 40 Min (1928) and For the Fun of It (1932). Selections from her journal, mailed to husband George Putnam during her final flight, were posthumously published as a third book, Last Flight, in 1937. Throughout her life Earhart worked tirelessly to promote aviation and opportunities for women.

More about her just click here

This is the kind of movie that if handle really carefully (meaning great acting, directing and script) could be become an award material kind of movie, but if something went wrong this is the kind of movie that could bore people to death. But I am gonna keep my finger crossed and hope for the best.

Some people mention that IF Swank won the Oscar again this is gonna be the third movie where she had to do quite extreme transformation (in Boys Don’t Cry she lived as a man for a month, in Million Dollar Baby she trained as a Boxer and in this one she is now taking flight lesson. First so she can feel comfortable with her character who was a pilot, but Swank decided to go ahead and get her flight license. Way to go, Hilary!

Of course people already criticize that usually academy tend to choose the winner according how much physically transformation the actor does to be the character. Well, I don’t see what’s wrong with that. Is not like Swank just hide behind the make up and let people judge her the way she looked.

She shines in her roles, she knows how to act! There were times I almost doubt but when I watched in her “light” role like in Freedom Writers, there were scene where her character were sitting with the father after her husband left her. Her tears just falling down like that and she kept wiping it with her hand. Other actress will probably won’t wipe it because crying is one of the most important thing that actors should know how to do it. I saw many times how the actor already make their face as sad as they could but still no tears coming down. Not Hilary, she didn’t even have to try (at least that’s how she tried to implied that it looked easy but I bet it didn’t).

Beside many actors gone through huge physical transformation but they didn’t get any nod. For example Eddy Murphy in Norbid and all Big Momma’s series.

Another thing, if Swank win the Oscar, this is gonna be her third where the character she played die (in this case missing) (*)