Australia Review

Australia: Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman star in Baz Luhrmann’s sweeping epic about the land down under. All of the elements were in place to make the classic Hollywood saga, but yet the story ultimately felt empty. This is not to say that the movie is a total bust. Putting this film on the “perspective scale” you see that it was trying to be a lot more than the standard tale. Australia may have come up short of its goal, but it still lands above much of the junk in theaters today. The movie opens up with Lady Ashley (Kidman) traveling from England to Australia to see her long absent husband at the cattle ranch he purchased. Just before she arrives, her husband is murdered leaving her sole proprietor of the cattle ranch. She can either take the easy way out and sell the cattle business to her evil competitor or keep the business going on her own. It is almost a 3 hour movie…..she picks the latter. In doing so, she must figure out a way to heard 1,500 cattle over treacherous land to the Australian port of Darwin. There she will be able to sell her cattle to the army who is preparing for World War II. Enter Drover (Jackman), the best damn cattle drover in all of the land. With him in the lead and a cast of 5 others including Kidman and an aboriginal boy, the adventure begins. That is only part one of the story. When they finally make it to Darwin there is controversy about who the little boy should stay with since he is of white and aboriginal descent and has no parents to care for him. Then there is the empire of Japan who comes in and bombs Darwin in hopes that it will cut off supplies to the Australian military. Through all of this, the characters finally realize who they truly love and care for…now the question is whether they can save each other from danger. The movie is filled with wide shots of the beautiful landscape and even has some moments of awe during both the cattle herding and war scenes. Luhrmann also finds a way to incorporate the song “Somewhere over the Rainbow”. I thought the acting was good – Kidman better than Jackman and the boy above them both. I think two things that could have helped strengthen the film would be tweaking the story so that we cared more about the fate of the characters and adding a little more of Luhrmann’s creative directing style to separate it from the norm. The story was grand, but the emotion was shallow. I liked it, but wanted more…

Ry's Rating: B-

If this movie had parents they would be: Out of Africa & Pearl Harbor

With a runtine of 165 minutes

This film is rated PG-13