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Australia



Let’s get one thing straight right from the start. Australia is a very silly film. If you don’t mind that, though, you may well enjoy it. Just don’t go in expecting anything insightful or profound. Take some popcorn. This is an old fashioned epic (note: for ‘epic’ read ‘three hour long’) romantic drama complete with sweeping score and moustache twirling bad guys. Realism and historical accuracy take a back seat to engineered situations to create drama for the main characters. But then who goes to see a Baz Luhrmann film expecting realism?

This is very much Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, just as William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was really Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet. While marking a departure from his red curtain trilogy, the Luhrmann trademarks are visible throughout. The Australia of the film is a colourful, not-quite-real world where magic is possible and love makes all things possible. The names – The Drover, ‘King’ Carney (carne) the meat company owner, ‘Poor Fella’ whisky – are suggestive of a fairytale. The image of a Nicole Kidman in a red dress kissing a floppy-haired Hugh Jackman in the rain is reminiscent of Luhrmann’s earlier work – including that perfume ad. It has the recycling of old songs to new effect of Moulin Rouge in its use of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Australia lacks the pace of Luhrmann’s previous films. He was notoriously still editing the film hours before its premiere. Perhaps he should have given himself more time, because it is still about an hour too long.

Nicole Kidman plays Lady Sarah Ashley, who arrives at the Australian ranch owned by her husband determined to sell up and get out quick, until an encounter with a mixed race child who reveals how her manager has been cheating her changes her mind. She determines to drive the cattle to town with an assorted bunch of characters including Hugh Jackman’s Drover. They initially don’t get on at all, but it’s hardly spoiling the surprise to say they soon change their minds. In the meantime, Sarah Ashley bonds with the orphaned boy and hopes to stop him being taken away to the mission. Kidman handles the later drama much better than the earlier comedy. Jackman is suitably laid back and rugged. And Brandon Walters as the boy Nullah is good enough to keep the sentimental drama from becoming too mawkish.

If you want a more genuine account of the tragedy of Australia’s ‘stolen generation, watch Rabbit Proof Fence. If you want an entertaining adventure/romance/drama, you could do worse than watch Australia.

3/5