Australia (2008)

I'm not particularly into Baz Luhrmann (I've only seen Moulin Rouge! and let's face it, it wasn't great) and I really hate Nicole Kidman, but somehow I moved past these factors because Australia had the looks of an exciting, epic, visually masterful period romance. I was partially right?

As probably most of you know, this movie is so. long. Also parts were hard to understand. But I'll try to be succinct and factual in my summary. It's the 1930's (!) and Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) travels to Australia, where her husband owns a cattle ranch called Faraway Downs that's on the verge of collapse due to monopolizing rival rancher King Carney (Bryan Brown) who's pushing him to sell it. She finds her husband dead, supposedly killed by a local Aboringal witch doctor (or shaman? I'm not sure what the proper term would be, sorry) King George (David Gulpilil), and decides to take on management of the ranch against all odds. After firing her asshole station manager Fletcher (David Wenham), who was in league with Carney (and secretly actually killed Lord Ashley), she hires rough-around-the-edges Drover (Hugh Jackman) (whose real name we never learn, a real problem for me) to help transport her cattle to Darwin for the Australian army (or maybe it was British?) so that they it won't be forced to buy from Carney at high prices. She enlists the Aboriginal maid-types from the estate as well as Drover's right-hand men (also Aborigine), her alcoholic accountant, and a young "half-caste" boy named Nullah whom she gradually comes to regard as her son. Naturally Sarah and Drover fall in love along the way.

Despite numerous attempts by Fletcher to derail the trip, they make it to Darwin and Sarah is able to keep Faraway Downs alive. She, Drover, and Nullah are a sort of family for a while, with Drover often leaving for long periods of time to go on droving (I assume that's the term?) missions. Sarah is petrified of losing Nullah, who is either going to be taken by the authorities (many biracial children were brought to missions to be integrated into white Christian society- "The Stolen Generations") or led by King George (his grandfather) on a walkabout. Meanwhile Fletcher still has a grudge against Sarah and the Japanese are about to bomb Northern Australia and there are various other problems all leading to a heart-wrenching conclusion in which love is declared, racism is combatted, etc.

Ok so I've seen "good but not great" thrown around, and that is pretty much my feeling about the movie. The story is interesting but not told particularly well. I found myself very confused for most of the first half because it seemed to assume prior knowledge of cattle ranching. The second half was easier to follow but also felt a bit over-done and/or out of place. I understand why a movie of this length would have a complex, multi-layered storyline, it just could have been executed better. Maybe if it had been more of a romance? Or focus more on Sarah's relationship with Nullah? Or develop all of the seemingly random characters better (ie the Aboriginal maid-type woman, Drover's sidekicks, etc)? Basically it seemed like the whole story wasn't quite worth the near-3-hour sitting time. The performances were good; Nicole Kidman was less annoying than usual (which coming from me is a compliment) and Hugh Jackman was sexy as ever but not in it enough. Brandon Walters was adorable and very impressive, considering this is his first role.

The cinematography was amazing, which is one of the reasons I was interested to begin with. The landscapes were vast and lush. The more action-driven scenes were exciting and shot really well. The costumes were beautiful, as I expected. There were many touching and affecting moments, as well as some humorous ones. Unfortunately it often felt all over the place, especially with the overly-comedic beginning. Overall it is an interesting and exceptionally visually stunning film, but it's not exactly the next great epic (I'm not making any Gone With the Wind references here because guess what, that movie sucked much harder than Australia). It was nice to see him use the setting so effectively, and I learned many things about Australia that I didn't know (though the historical validity of the movie is apparently debatable), like its incredibly personal participation in WWII. I just think it would have been better if it was either shorter or narratively better-executed. I guess see it if you're a Baz Luhrmann fan, dig sprawling landscapes and references to classic epics, or don't mind paying to sit for 3 hours.

3.5/5

UPDATE
You guys, this is so weird. While looking for this movie on Netflix, I came across this movie from ten years ago, which seems to have almost the exact same plot as the first half of Australia! Weird!