Movie Review - Australia

Big, overblown and rowdy as the country of its title, this movie is not, alas, nearly as much fun as that country. Baz Luhrmann has an over the top, almost operatic style of filmmaking that usually works like gangbusters for me, but this time it misfires in an odd attempt at homage to old timers like "The African Queen" and "Gone With the Wind". There's an unlikely romance between a priggish, uptight woman and a rough and rugged guy, not exactly a fresh concept. The couple in question are Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) and a herder known simply as The Drover (Hugh Jackman). Lady Ashley arrives in Australia in search of her wayward husband, who turns up dead with the ranch house and property Faraway Downs which he owned thus falling to his widow, the befuddled city slicker Lady Ashley. At first she wants to sell the place, but the discovery that her cattle are being stolen, along with a land takeover plot by local power hungry barons, brings her a resolve to hold onto the property. A secondary, and much more appealing storyline involves a young half-caste Aboriginal boy named Nullah (the beautiful Brandon Walters) and his grandfather King George (Aboriginal actor supreme David Gulpilil), a magic man who is teaching the young boy the ways of his ancestors despite Lady Sarah's growing attachment to the kid.

As in several recent movies I've seen, the secondary storyline is the most rewarding part of the film. It's admirable that Luhrmann has chosen to devote generous portions of this movie to the Aboriginal culture, and the mystical side of the native beliefs shines through very effectively. The practice of kidnapping half caste children to train them in the ways of the white man has previously been covered in more detail in another, much betterAustralian film, "Rabbit Proof Fence." Luhrmann adds some nice touches, such as a sweet rendition of "Over the Rainbow" (with its double meaning of the land of Oz) between Lady Ashley and Nullah, then proceeds to overuse it to the point of ruination. As a director, he doesn't know when to stop and elicits a poor performance from Kidman. He's also thrown in everything but the kitchen sink, with the bombing of Darwin during WWII, way too many barroom brawls, a lengthy cattle drive across rough terrain and aforesaid romance. Done right, it might have constituted an epic. As it turns out, it merely constitutes a movie full of loose ends, none of which really work with the exception of the Aboriginal strands.

Things to love in this movie: The storyline involving Nulla and King George; glorious costumes by Baz Luhrmann's wife Catherine Martin; those fabulous Australian landscapes; a breathtaking scene involving a cattle stampede; looking at Hugh Jackman (though his character is not that enthralling); seeing the inimitable David Gulpilil on screen
Things to hate in this movie: Cardboard characters and disappointing script; way too long (and feels like it); the causal killing of a kangaroo
Pleasant surprises: A nice ending
Unpleasant surprises: Very little chemistry between the two stars, particularly in the romantic scenes; not enough sense of the country of its title; the fact that there are no surprises