Cast: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Baz Luhrmann, director of Moulin Rouge is no stranger to spectacle, but his latest offering Australia is a failed attempt at pulling off a David Lean-style sprawling epic.
The film's a heady mix of many genres including romance, adventure and war, but rather than being old-fashioned and classic, it's old-school and melodramatic.
The film set in 1939 Australia stars Nicole Kidman as Lady Sarah Ashley, a plucky Brit widow trying to save her ranch from an evil cattle baron.
Her allies include a half-caste boy she befriends who's being victimized by the government's racial policies against Aborigines, and the handsome cowboy (played by Hugh Jackman) who drives her bulls to market.
To be honest, after sitting through some two hours of campfires, cattle drives and mad stampedes, the film looks like it's finally ending, but just then you realise to your absolute horror that the last act is still ahead -- a good forty minutes or so dedicated to the World War II subplot.
Breathtakingly photographed, but sloppy from trying to pack in too much, Australia is a test of patience for any true-blue movie buff who will more than likely be on his knees praying for the film to finally end.
The romance between Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman's characters is schmaltzy and ridden with clichés, and the film's portrayal of Aborigines as uniformly kind and mystical beings seems counter-productive to its message against racial prejudice.
If Australia fails, it's not for lack of trying, but perhaps for trying too hard. I'm going with two out of five and at best an average rating for Baz Luhrmann's ambitious but flawed Australia, a film that feels longer than an actual flight to Down Under.
Rating: 2 / 5 (Average)
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