"Australia"

The players: Director: Baz Luhrmann, Writers: Stuart Beattie, Richard Flanagan, Ronald Harwood, Baz Luhrmann, Cast: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, David Wenham, Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson

Facts of interest: It took nine months to shoot "Australia."

The plot: Nicole Kidman stars as an English aristocrat who travels to Australia to drive her inherited cattle to the town of Darwin. Helping her out is a stockman called Drover (Hugh Jackman).

Our thoughts: Like it or not, Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia” is an epic adventure, and it’s a darn entertaining one as well. I agree it took me some time to get settled before I could let the exciting experience unfolding on the big screen captivate me to the fullest extent, but once this step was completed, I found it quite easy to fully enjoy the next two and a half hours of cinematic beauty and intriguing storytelling.
Although it’s hard to believe, it’s been seven long years since Luhrmann’s fascinating “Moulin Rouge!” hit theaters. He’s clearly someone who allows himself plenty of time to prepare his next movie, and “Australia” being his so-called dream project, he made sure everything was to his liking before he tackled the nine-month shoot and the following post-production.

Indeed, as a heartfelt tribute to the beauty of his home country, “Australia” works quite well. Luhrmann treats every single shot with great care, offering his audience an incredibly beautiful portrait of the continent’s stunning landscapes and Aboriginal peoples. So visually, I think it’s pretty safe to say this is undoubtedly one of the most gorgeous films of the year.

What the movie has been criticized for a lot is the simplicity of its main story line, and while I don’t think this causes too much damage to the project as a whole, I do agree the plot ends up a bit too thin at times. The big romance between Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman isn’t as big as expected, and the film’s sudden switch from outback adventure to explosive WWII drama could’ve been handled more delicately.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Nicole Kidman stars as Lady Sarah Ashley, an English aristocrat who likes to take matters into her own hands and never lets anyone tell what to do. As the movie opens, Sarah travels to Australia to look after a cattle station she’s recently inherited from her husband. In trying to save her land and protect it from the greedy competition, Sarah looks for someone to help her drive her cattle to the coastal town of Darwin.

As it turns out, the only man suitable enough for the mission is someone called Drover (Hugh Jackman), an adventurous stockman who knows his way across the continent and wouldn’t give up his job for anything. Two people of opposite characters, Drover and Sarah don’t get along at all at first, until a series of dramatic twists bring them closer to each other than they could’ve ever imagined.

But the story doesn’t end there. Also playing a big role in the film is Neil Fletcher (David Wenham), a ruthless villain whose ultimate desire to own and operate the country’s cattle business inspires him to launch into a nasty feud with Sarah and her team. And while all this is going on, Sarah also learns to care deeply for Nullah (Brandon Walters), a young Aboriginal who joins her on her trip early on.

I guess you can look at this from a positive or negative side, but more often than not, it seemed to me that the emerging mother-son relationship between Sarah and Nullah is given far more attention and depth than her romantic involvement with Drover. Personally, this didn’t bother me at all, but I understand some viewers’ frustration over a lack of sophisticated relationship between Kidman and Jackman.

Then of course, there’s also the film’s final part, which departs from the first two thirds in a way that it quickly changes to a fast-paced depiction of the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese a couple of months after Pearl Harbor. While the attack and its aftermath looks stunning and raises the film’s level of suspense for a couple of minutes, I have to admit it’s a too drastic a switch for my taste.

Still, despite this little faux pas, a simple romance and a rather underdeveloped subplot involving the vicious Fletcher (a character I just didn’t find convincing), Luhrmann succeeded in telling his story with a lot of passion, complete with first-class direction, stunning cinematography, fancy editing and of course, a triumphant score (by David Hirschfelder).

Taking into account both the shaky, overcrowded script and these flawless technical aspects, I found “Australia” to be a strong, entertaining adventure that boasts enough strengths to help viewers look past the few points of weakness. Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman turn in grand performances and share a great onscreen chemistry, which obviously helps the film a lot.

Freaky quote: “We can't let them win." – Nicole Kidman

The final word: Although the film takes a drastic turn after nearly two hours by mutating into a loud war drama with bombs destroying pretty much everything, “Australia” had me hooked until the very last minute. While the movie may not have moved me emotionally as much as “Moulin Rouge!,” it certainly increased my desire to visit Australia and discover its beauty myself.



Article by Franck Tabouring

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