Without Hilary Swank, "Amelia" would never soar to any sorts of heights. In fact, the whole film would never even really take off without her, either.

The Academy Award-winning actress provides a solid foundation for and manages to elevate this at-times muddled biographical drama about female aviator Amelia Earhart.

Speaking of that central part, it would be a tricky role for any actress — the famed female pilot may have looked tomboyish but was apparently very feminine in several respects.

Yet Swank makes it look easier than it probably should be. She's equally charming and vulnerable, which were evidently a couple of the traits of the real-life Earhart.

And that's a good thing, because the film often sputters, sways and wobbles in its eventual storytelling path.

(By the way, Swank also served as one of the film's executive producers, so the not-getting-off-the-ground thing really is no exaggeration.)

"Amelia" charts Earhart's rise to fame after she crossed the Atlantic Ocean by plane in 1928.

As the film shows, that feat was done with considerable help and support from publisher George Putnam (Richard Gere), who later became her agent, manager and husband.

Also, Earhart was not piloting the plane during the flight. It was another pilot, Wilmer Stultz (Joe Anderson), who did the honors, while she served as the mission "commander."

But she eventually made that flight by herself in 1932, duplicating Charles Lindbergh's feat.

The film builds up to and re-creates parts from Earhart's ill-fated 1937 attempt to fly around the world. (Top-notch navigator Fred Noonan, played here by Christopher Eccleston, was aboard, as well.)

"Amelia" is based on two Earhart biographies. And screenwriters Ron Bass and Anne Hamilton Phelan are both pros when it comes to this sort of material. (Their separate credits include the films "Dangerous Minds," "Gorillas in the Mist," "Mask" and "Rain Man.)

However, they and director Mira Nair ("The Namesake") make some curious choices about what was included and what was not. The filmmakers skimp on crucial background material — particularly any details about her life before she became a pilot.

And a romantic triangle subplot involving Earhart, Putnam and air commerce official Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor) seems curiously halfhearted, as if it had been thrown in as an afterthought.

Yet it is a beautiful-looking film, and the cast is good. Swank has already gotten some pre-Oscar buzz for her winning turn, and she and Gere have an easy, believable chemistry.

"Amelia" is rated PG and features some violent content and imagery (storms, as well as scenes depicting plane crashes and similar mayhem), scattered profanity (mostly mild, religiously based curse words), some suggestive language and references, brief sexual contact, and derogatory language and slurs. Running time: 111 minutes.

e-mail: jeff@desnews.com