In 1862, daredevil balloon pilot Amelia Wren (Felicity Jones) teams up with pioneering meteorologist James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) to advance human knowledge of the weather and fly higher than anyone in history.
The movie starts with the claim that its inspired by true events but they changed the gender of one of the main characters. Henry Coxwell was the one who accompanied James Glaisher but they replaced him with a fictional female character Amelia Wren. Amelia Wren is supposedly based on Sophie Blanchard who was a balloonist from much earlier than 1862. They could have instead made a movie on Sophie Blanchard. They named the character based on Amelia Earhart but its not a movie based on her. They also included a fictional Indian character which felt completely anachronistic.
Amelia’s character is initially shown doing silly things for the people who have gathered to watch the balloon. Later James Glaisher is shown as reckless in endangering not only his but also Amelia’s life so that he can learn about the weather. James doesn’t even bring warm clothes and Amelia is seen climbing to the top of the balloon without any gloves.
Felicity Jones is good as Amelia and Eddie Redmayne is good as James Glaisher. Himesh Patel is good as John Trew, James’ friend. The rest of the cast is decent. The Vfx are good.
Tom Harper should have either made a complete fantasy or stuck to the true story. The problem is even with all the cinematic liberties he takes the movie is still not engrossing or inspiring enough. Tom Harper’s statement that “I wanted it to not be two middle-aged men in a basket. I wanted it to be reflective for a contemporary audience,” is completely ridiculous. What next – a Civil War movie with a female President instead of Lincoln or a movie on Apollo 11 with a female astronaut instead to appeal to a contemporary audience.
Tags: Eddie Redmayne Felicity Jones
