Epic Film 'Australia' Turns Into Confused Walkabout
20th Century Fox
Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman fall in love against the backdrop of war in "Australia."
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Published: November 26, 2008
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Sure, you love big, sweeping, romantic, epic movies. But the question with "Australia" is: how much?
Are you willing to sit through three hours' worth of sweeping epic romance? How about three hours of sweeping epic romance that, in the last hour or so, becomes choppy and somewhat slapdash, with an ending that certainly looks like it wasn't the original one intended?
The movie has moments that pack an emotional wallop, particularly in the early going. But be warned that "Australia," despite the aspirations of the director and the marketing department, is far closer in its last hour to "Pearl Harbor" than it is "Dr. Zhivago" or "Out of Africa."
The good news is director Baz Luhrmann ("Moulin Rouge!") provides visual flourishes, and the Northern Territories of Australia provide stunning scenery.
Hugh Jackman is convincing as always.
Nicole Kidman is, well, here's the thing: Kidman has become more rigid and frosty with each passing film. That's not to say she isn't good here, she's just not showing much emotional nuance between laughter and weeping.
There's a pretty good movie here, and it's in the first 90 minutes or so. Despite the movie being sold as a romance between The Drover (Jackman) and Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman), the film centers on Nullah, played by 12-year-old Brandon Walters in a stunning debut.
Nullah is a "half-caste," half-black and half-white. As it opens, he witnesses a murder while fishing with his aboriginal grandfather, King George (David Gulpilil). That dead man is the husband of Lady Ashley, who is on her way to Australia to persuade him to sell the ranch he owns there. Upon her arrival, she is met by The Drover, a term for cattle driver.
What Ashley does not know is that an evil land baron, King Carney (Bryan Brown), wants to corner the cattle market and is destroying the Ashley ranch. Lady Ashley is ready to flee when she discovers her husband's death, but ends up staying when she meets Nullah and finds out authorities want to arrest him and take him to a camp to be "assimilated" into Western culture (the Australian prime minister just this year issued an official apology for this policy, which ended in 1973).
She also, eventually, develops feelings for The Drover.
When he helps her drive cattle to Darwin, a city on Australia's northern coast, the movie hits its high point.
After that, the movie stumbles to two years later, when the Japanese bombed Darwin after bombing Pearl Harbor.
The things that keep it from being a complete disaster are Lurhmann's ability to squeeze the emotion out of every scene and Walters' doe-eyed innocence.
"Australia" is not the epic flop many feared, but it's not the Down Under answer to "Gone With The Wind," either.
Australia
Two-and-half stars
MOVIE BOARD RATING: PG-13
STARS: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brandon Walters
DIRECTOR: Baz Luhrmann
PLOT SUMMARY: An Australian boy finds himself in the center of an adventure when an English aristocrat and a cattle driver team up to drive a herd of cattle to Darwin.
RUNNING TIME: 175 minutes
ON THE WEB: www.australiamovie.com
Kevin Walker can be reached at (813) 259-7975.
