Australia-Movie Review

The latest English movie to be released in India is Australia, starring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, David Wenham, Jack Thompson, Bryan Brown. The film is Directed and Produced by Baz Luhrmann and is written by Baz Luhrmann, Ronald Harwood, Stuart Beattie, Richard Flanagan.

It is a very out of track film. The movie ends up leaving the audiences confused about, what the writers and director wanted to show in this movie. The story's loaded with mixed messages, making the film feel like a mixed-up, hodgepodge mess of little vignettes forcefully pieced together. The confusing tale starts off as a slapstick comedy, complete with Nicole Kidman making screwball faces, and winds up being this emotionally draining story involving World War II and the bombing of an orphanage.

According to the critics Australia is an overstuffed epic in need of a severe trimming. Cut out about half an hour, forget about adding World War II to the storyline, and shift the focus to Hugh Jackman rather than Nicole Kidman and Australia wouldn't be a bad movie. But as it stands now, not even a shirtless Jackman makes this Australia worth visiting.

Nobody is able to establish a connection of how we landed up in an emotional drama after starting off with a slapstick comedy. Australia does have its moments of sheer beauty and there is about an hours-worth of a highly recommendable film nestled within its 2 ½ hour running time. Unfortunately, that 60 minutes comes in the mid-section, leaving the butt-numbing final act for you to think about as you leave the theater.

It would have been a much more better experience leaving before Luhrmann brings World War II into the story. There's even a natural point to end the movie before the third act which is a pivotal, emotionally gripping scene that really weaves its magic on the audience. After that scene, the rest of the movie is just like a square peg being smashed into a round hole, the untidy edges then draped in pretty Australian scenery.

Kidman plays the role of Sarah Ashley, who believes her husband's cheating on her. After he refuses to return home from tending to their business interests down under, Sarah packs up dozens of bags and goes to Australia to find out who he's cheating with and get him to sell off their land and go back to England.

Sarah's plans abruptly change when she reaches their cattle ranch only to find out her husband's been killed. An Aboriginal medicine man has been named as the culprit, but Sarah soon catches on to the fact there's much more going on at the ranch. Her husband's right hand man, Neil Fletcher (David Wenham), is a nasty fellow who treats the locals worse than cows and wouldn't know the truth if it jumped up and slapped him in the face. Sarah fires Neil, an act which elevates her standing in the eyes of all the hired help on the ranch, including a young part-Aborigine boy, Nullah (Brandon Walters), who forms a special bond with Sarah.

Without Neil, Sarah needs someone who can drive her cattle to market. Sarah has to sell off her cattle to the military in order to keep the ranch afloat and to stave off an offer to buy the place from King Carney (Bryan Brown), an offer her husband rejected outright. King Carney's the biggest cattle baron on the continent and he desperately wants her piece of land. And Neil, who happens to be his son-in-law, is willing to do just about anything to help King Carney take over the strategically located property.

Sarah hires the very reluctant, extremely good-looking Drover (Hugh Jackman) to lead the cattle through treacherous terrain. Drover, his occupation and the only name he goes by, isn't a fan of King Carney or Neil. He's not really a fan of Sarah's either, but they're forced together due to their mutual dislike of the competition. Of course, being that this is a romantic epic, they soon discover there's an attraction between them that can't be denied.