Australia (2008)

Director: Baz Lurhmann
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, David Wenham, Bryan Brown, Essie Davis

I take offense at those reviewers that expected 'Australia' to be some high brow revelation into Australia's controversial colonial past in the mid 20th Century. You could tell from the outset that these movie 'experts' clearly expected so much more than was ever going to be delivered. When Baz Lurhmann sets out to create a 'Gone with the Wind' or 'Cassablanca' set amongst the isolated cattle stations (not ranches, ranches are American, cattle stations are Australian) of the Top End and the Japanese attack on Darwin, I knew what to expect. I clearly had one up on all those vindictive journalists that wanted something more serious and less enjoyable.

Australia is good fun. It is meant to be fun. Sure, there are outrageously corny points (slow motion water seen, Hugh Jackman topless, SQUEE) and a storyline that sometimes is so extremely out there it has no basis in reality (a little kid vs stampeding cattle? who won?), but that is a part of the fun, and is to be expected both from a Baz Lurhmann film, and from a movie of the epic genre.

The movie is essentially in two parts, but the flow of story is seemless. This is in part held together by the extraordinary effort of the two leads. Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman had to adapt from seens of pure hilarity to seens of nail biting suspense, to heartbreaking drama. Those critics that have blasted Nicole Kidman's performance I believe have an agenda, because unlike in recent movies where her role seemed flat and dull, Kidman did jump out of the screen and make an impression.

As everyone else has mentioned, Brandon Waters is absolutely fantastic. There is no denying the fact that he is the revelation of this movie. He ties together not only the storyline, but truly engages you emotionally. He, an amateur actor and still a child, was given the most emotionally difficult scenes of the film, and carried them off beautifully.

In defence of some of the more negative comments I have heard about this film:
I believe Baz Lurhmann included enough of our abominable past with the aboriginals to educate, but not so much as to make the movie difficult to watch or to make the audience feel like they were being punished for the sins of their fathers.
In response to the fact that he digitally edited the glorious Australian Landscape to make it even more breathtaking : who doesn't edit their holiday photos these days to get the colours right and the feeling just right? Get off your high horse people.
And, to the fact that 20th Century Fox forced Lurhmann to change the ending. Be angry at them, not at Lurhmann.

There are some scenes in this movie that are so Australian, I would love to know what people unfamiliar with our humour or our outback lifestyle thought.