Movie Review

Australia

“Australia” was involved in some controversy recently after rumors spread that director Baz Luhrman ("Moulin Rouge") was forced to go back into the editing room with a mere two weeks to go because studio heads didn’t like the sad ending. Did he change it? By the time it comes you really won’t give a shit either way. Sad ending, happy ending, still a crappy-ass movie. Luhrman’s MO is the love in the midst of controversy angle and he likes to put a big exclamation point on all of it. Making something overblown is his version of passion, something that made him perfect for creating musicals and MTV style Shakespeare, but this over-plotted western/war movie is way too long, sentimental, and hokey to really be taken seriously and at times it felt downright painful.

Nicole Kidman plays Lady Sarah Ashley, a British aristocrat in 1939 who flies to Australia to drag her husband away from the ranch they have there. She thinks he’s cheating on her, but when she arrives and finds him dead she realizes there are a lot more sinister things going on. Another local cattleman (Bryan Brown) is trying to steal her livestock and her land and will stoop to any lengths to get it, including hiring a strong-armer named Neil Fletcher (David Wenham). Ashley soon realizes that to save the land she will have to drive the cattle to be sold, a task she hires a drover, named Drover (Hugh Jackman), to help her with. Soon a more loving relationship forms between them as well. The movie also touches on the Australian government’s bigoted attitude toward aborigines in 1939, particularly with a young boy Ashley befriends named Nullah (Brandon Walters). And then in the second half the movie switches from western to war movie as we focus on World War 2 and the Japanese bombing the city of Darwin.

Despite all this the movie is easy to follow, but it’s all so jammed together that none of it can really breathe either. The romance between Ashley and the cattleman comes out of nowhere and is never given the room to grow into something passionate. By the end Luhrman is reverting back to music (Somewhere Over the Rainbow from “The Wizard of Oz” plus an obnoxious musical score) to manipulate our feelings. His dealings with racism are melodramatic and obvious, more for actors to mug and boo-woo for the camera than for anything else. And we’re also subjected to cheesy explanatory scenes about the magic of the land and spirits and how songs connect everything.

That the reportedly huge budget for this movie doesn’t appear on the screen is another disappointment. The cinematography by Mandy Walker is some of the best of the year. The sunlight shining down on the outback country side, the vibrant colors, gorgeous animals, and extremely good looking actors are shown in beautifully realized images. Just I doubt it takes over $100 million just for this. Some of the money should be seen in some of the other areas but cheap looking green-screen effects are blatantly used at different points in the movie, worst is during a huge action sequence featuring a bull stampede. Where did all the money go?

The actors do what they can but they’re not given much. Kidman adds some humor and a touch of respectability to a woman out of place and out of her element. Jackman is a likable hero but I have a feeling he was picked here mainly for living up to that sexiest man alive title rather than for his acting ability. Brandon Walters is annoyingly cute. And something Luhrman likes to do is make his villains into a Snidely Whiplash-version of evil and in that case, Wenham and Brown twirl their mustaches to almost perfect caricature. But despite the cast and the fact that “Australia” looks beautiful, Luhrman can’t keep this movie from dissolving into a meaningless bore that will probably be forgotten by the end of the year.

Craig's Grade: D+

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%