PATC review: Australia

SH December 31, 2008, 3:59 pm

Australia - 12A

Baz Lurmann’s last film was Moulin Rouge in 2001, and he’s once again teamed up with Nicole Kidman for this romantic melodrama.

Kidman is Lady Sarah, an English noblewoman who travels to Australia just before the Second World War, hoping to persuade her husband to sell his land. When she arrives she discovers that her husband has been murdered apparently by Aborigines, and his property is roughly the size of Belgium. Lady Sarah teams up with “The Drover” (Hugh Jackman) to drive her cattle to Darwin, and somewhere en route falls for him. Also along for the ride is a young Aboriginal boy (Brandon Walters) whose idiosyncratic narration fills in the numerous plot holes.

An undeniably huge film, Luhrmann is attempting here to make an Australian Gone With the Wind. He almost manages it too, but is let down by his disastrous choice of leading lady. Aside from her gratingly unconvincing upper class English accent, her performance in the first half of the film especially is enormous and devoid of any subtlety. As the character’s actions aren’t always entirely plausible, the impression she ultimately gives is of someone rather unhinged. That said, Jackman does absolutely everything he’s meant to do as the rugged outdoorsman, and at times even makes Luhrmann’s fable seem vaguely believable.

Epic scope means if you want to see it then you should make the effort to watch it on a big screen, but don’t expect the exuberant camp of Moulin Rouge.

Film review by Matthew Perry