Australia
Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman star in Australia
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Thursday, 25, Dec 2008 06:01
Directed by Baz Luhrmann, out December 26th, in cinemas, starring Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Brandon Walters, David Wenham, running time 165 mins.
In a nutshell.
Glossy, lengthy - three films for the price of one.
What's it all about?
The first of a planned trilogy of epic dramas - though his upcoming adaptation of The Great Gatsby will provide a literary diversion - Baz Luhrmann's new effort sees Nicole Kidman as Lady Sarah Ashley, an English aristocrat who inherits a large Outback ranch in pre-second-world-war Australia.
Lady Sarah is forced into an unlikely partnership with a stoic cowhand known only as the Drover (Jackman) and embarks on the journey of a lifetime, driving 2,000 cattle across the unforgiving Northern Territory before the Japanese bombing of Darwin and government initiatives against Aboriginal families threaten their hopes of a new life.
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Who's in it?
Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman (Lady Sarah Ashley) made her big-haired movie debut in 1983's BMX Bandits, before embarking on an impressively diverse career including big budget fare (Batman Forever, Moulin Rouge!) and innovative dramas (To Die For, Eyes Wide Shut) and living much of her life in the public eye through her marriage to Tom Cruise. Named best actress by the Academy for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in 2002's The Hours, she is now married to country musician Keith Urban and mother to one-year-old Sunday Rose (as well as two adopted children with Cruise).
An Emmy and Tony award-winner, Hugh Jackman (The Drover) was recently named the Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine and having broken through on the international stage as Wolverine in X-Men (2000), he can next be seen in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a spin-off detailing the history of the mutant with the adamantium-laced skeleton. Jackman, 40, has worked with the likes of Woody Allen (Scoop), Christopher Nolan (The Prestige) and Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain) and was recently confirmed as the host of the 2009 Oscars.
To read the inthenews.co.uk interview with Hugh Jackman, click here
As an example.
"Mrs Boss! We gotta get those fat cheeky bulls into that big bloody metal ship!" - Nullah
"Sarah, when it's dry, I'll be gone droving." - The Drover
"But it's raining now." - Lady Sarah Ashley
"Just because it is, doesn't mean it should be." - The Drover
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars?
Luhrmann's always been a visually exciting director and in this muddled, extended advert for the land Down Under, there's certainly enough beauty to earn a cinematography nomination, but competition in the best director category is too strong and Jackman and Kidman's enjoyable but old-fashioned performances are at odds with those of their peers.
What the others say
"Often beautiful but wildly inconsistent, Australia is none more Baz Luhrmann, which perhaps says it all. Worth a look on the big screen, though." - Chris Hewitt, Empire
"What a gorgeous film, what strong performances, what exhilarating images and - yes, what sweeping romantic melodrama." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
So is it any good?
It's so close. Luhrmann's been explicit about his desire to make the type of sprawling epic with which he grew up and with stunning vistas, Kidman channelling Audrey Hepburn's flightiness, and Jackman seemingly carved out of a large, testosterone-based tree, he succeeds wonderfully in doing so for the first two-thirds of the film.
He restrains himself admirably from throwing in too much of his Red Curtain brand of fantasy and with the leads' chemistry fizzing like Bacall and Bogey, and Brandon Walters remarkable - if sometimes cloying - as the narrator Nullah, the stage is set for a breathless cattle drive story arc that could easily have come from Johns Huston or Ford.
If only the film ended with the successful resolution of the state-wide droving. Instead, what appears to be a year's worth of storyline zips across the screen in around five minutes and Luhrmann looks to have decided that making an involving Western wasn't enough and embarks on his second world war epic, with a bit of social commentary involving Australia's stolen generation of Aboriginal children thrown in for good measure.
David Wenham becomes a steadily more tiresome pantomime villain and any interest in the story wanes as the endless parade of incidents wear the viewer down.
Luhrmann hadn't finished editing the film with less than a week before release and though rumours of studio interference in the ending are almost certainly exaggerated, a bit more muscling in on the editing room might have been a good idea for Fox.
6/10
Lewis Bazley