[Movie Review] AUSTRALIA
Have you ever been so excited to see a film that you almost couldn’t take it? Like you felt like you were going to explode as the hours ticked away toward that first screening? That is how I felt today as I prepped for an advance screening of Australia. This movie is the BIG ONE of the fall season for me. I’m madlyin love with Hugh Jackman, director Baz Luhrmann can do no wrong in my eyes, and Nicole Kidman is my favorite actress working today. All things considered, this movie should have been the perfect storm of awesome for me. But then I began to hear rumors of trouble in the editing room, and wild stories that Baz was editing the flick ’round the clock to have it ready for its release next week. I began to feel a real sense of dread as I picked up my friend and we headed to the theater. As I sat down and the lights dimmed, I got this awful sinking feeling that this film was going to suck, and I would leave horribly disappointed.
I’ve never been so happy to be so incredibly WRONG. This is one of the best movies of the year, and one of the best epic romance-style films I’ve seen in a very long time. I’m no sap. I usually don’t go for movies where people are making googly-eyes at each other and making deep proclamations of love, but dammit if this movie didn’t completely nail every single thing that it set out to do. I laughed, I cried, I bought the friggin’ t-shirt. This is a truly great sweeping epic of a film, the kind that Hollywood just doesn’t make anymore. And I do mean epic: this thing clocks in at 2hrs 55 minutes. It’s a fatass movie, but it wears the weight incredibly well. The film revolves around Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman), a prim and proper Brit who travels to Australia to sell a cattle range belonging to her husband. She’s escorted to the property by The Drover (Jackman), a rough-hewn guy with a penchant for getting into fights and making a lot of friends along the way ( everyone in the film seems to know him!). As the two of them fall in love, they are faced with threats from rival competitors seeking to put Lady Ashley out of business, as well as the bombings of WWII that threaten everyone’s lives.
This may sound a bit dull, but I am telling you, this movie is a feast for the senses. The cinematography is gorgeous, and the camerawork in this is spectacular. Luhrmann is known for his fast-paced editing and whiplash camera movement, but if I didn’t know any better, I’d say this was directed by Terrence Malick. The landscapes of Australia are shown off in a big way, and I suspect that the land Down Under will see a big tourism boom after this film is released. Even if the movie was utter shit, I’d be able to say that the film looked beautiful. Speaking of beautiful, I need to get this out of the way right here: I didn’t think it was possible, but Hugh Jackman has never looked more unbearably handsome than he does in this film. Women were literally applauding when he came onscreen, especially in a pivotal moment when he shows up looking drop dead gorgeous in a white tuxedo. He looks like he just strolled off the set of Casablanca! And trust me, it wasn’t just the way his ass looked in those pants that had me panting. He’s never been so magnetic, so charismatic, so doggone sexy in a film in his entire career, and if X-Men didn’t prove to people that this man is a god among insects, this role certainly will. It takes a lot to be believable as a tough-as-nails badass while simultaneously making an entire theater packed with women of all ages go weak in the knees. ALL of the women leaving the screening were giggling and gushing about him.
And how about my gal Nicole? She’s had a rough streak lately with her film choices, but Australia puts her back on track. She’s hilarious as the uptight Sarah Ashley, who slowly thaws in the Australian Outback under the hot sun and the even hotter gaze of The Drover. It’s great to watch how Sarah goes toe-to-toe with The Drover and her enemies. Nicky K goes to town with this role and she’s dazzling onscreen. And her wardrobe…wow. She’s got a ball scene in this gorgeous red dress that gave me a little flashback to a similar getup from Moulin Rouge!, and as her character becomes enamored with The Drover, her look softens considerably. I usually don’t take much notice about wardrobe, but the clothes tell their owns stories, and I was very surprised at how much I started to pay attention to Sarah’s clothes. Just take note of what she’s wearing in her first and final scenes, and you’ll see how far she’s come.
The chemistry between these two is palpable from their first scene together, and I loved watching the two of them play an emotional game of tug-of-war throughout the film. They’ve been paired off with various other actors and actresses, but these two are fantastic together. Their real-life friendship has translated into some serious onscreen lovin’, even though their one real sex scene was WAY too tame for my liking (better be an extended cut DVD, Baz!). Unlike a lot of onscreen couple, I could buy that these two were truly in love, and it led to some real tearjerker moments in the film. But the real tearjerker in this film is Nullah, a young Aboriginal boy played by Brandon Walters. This child has never acted before this film, but dammit if he doesn’t give an Oscar-winning actress a run for her money in their numerous scenes together. This boy just…my guy friend that I brought to this film is a pretty rugged chap, and the child made HIM cry. I can’t go into specifics without giving spoilers, but this kid is something truly special, and I fell in love with his big brown eyes. He gives the breakout performance of the year. The rest of the film’s supporting cast is great, particularly David Wenham (Faramir from LOTR and the sidekick from Van Helsing) as the main baddie. He’s a real bastard without going over-the-top with it, and I really enjoyed seeing him be nasty after seeing him in a bunch of hero roles.
Special note has to be taken of the beautiful score, which riffs considerably on “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz. The manner in which that song in incorporated into this film is a masterstroke, and you better bring some tissue with you for the final use of the song because…wow. Just wow, man.
As much as I adored this film, there is a problem. It’s a little problem that I could overlook for the most part, but it is a problem nonetheless: some of the CG in this film is painfully bad. There are shots of people just sitting on horses outside where it’s clear that they are in front of a green screen. My eyes were picking up crap composite shots all over the place, from simple outdoor dialogue-driven scenes to an stampede setpiece that reminded me of the dino stampede in King Kong 2005. It was jarring at times to go from a sweeping outdoor shot that was clearly real to a shot that was so clearly fake.
As crap as that CG is sometimes, I loved this movie so much that I’m not going to deduct a poppy for it. There is just so much to love about this film. I was completely enraptured with the story, the actors are great, and the movie’s length honestly did not bother me one bit. There is always something going on, so it didn’t feel like it was nearly three hours long, at least to me. I also need to briefly address the ruckus concerning the film’s ending. There were reports that Luhrmann was pressured by the studio to change the ending of the film at the last moment due to test screenings that produced negative reactions to the ending. Without giving spoilers, I will say that the ending that I saw felt natural within the confines of the film, but having heard the commotion online, I can see how some may see it as a tacked on thing to appease audiences. That being said, I don’t need to see the other ending. The film is just about perfect as is.
P.S.-Hugh, call me!
6 Responses to “[Movie Review] AUSTRALIA”
OMG! Thank the lord! I read this secondary to the AICN review that went up this morning in which they gutted it and fiddled with its respective bumhole. So this delights me!
PHEW!!
Thank you Kris
I went to the screening with a friend who works in the press, and he was pretty lukewarm to it. Everyone leaving the theater was gushing about it, though. I think I get why AICN tore it up. There is a tonal shift in the movie, as it goes from fairly comedic early on to more serious late in the game, but it didn’t feel artificial or forced to me. People are saying it was trying too hard to be epic when it wasn’t, at least to me. I was just swept away by the thing, and I can’t wait to see it again. Like Zack and Miri, I’ve seen this for free and I will PAY FULL PRICE to watch it again.
I really do love this movie, and I’m really surprised at the critics who are tearing it up. Like Este said, it is long but I loved every minute of it. The only genuine complaint that I can see people making against it is the sometimes terrible CGI.
I think that Australian critics are being overly harsh against this movie because they didn’t get what they were expecting. They’ve always been harsh toward their own stars, but some of the comments I’ve been reading, particularly in regards to Kidman, have been out of line, in my opinion. And if someone as politically incorrect as I am thinks that you’re out of order…
Who gives a f*** what press say or Australians for that matter? A film like this might need to make lots of money on paper but if it speaks to you, as it clearly has done Kristina, then who cares if AICN and whoever else don’t like it?
I’m looking forward to it based on the cast and director myself.
It’s interesting how movies like this and Alexander (had its moments and was no turkey!) and (I’m gonna say it!) Speed Racer get killed before they have a chance to be seen on their own merits, free of critical bile. That doesn’t mean that these films are perfect but do they have to be? At least they try to offer something interesting to a mainstream audience.
I’d rather see a return to a braver type of mainstream filmmaking that got a wide release than the steady stream of choppily edited action and half-baked adaptations of anything a tree was harmed in the making of.
Great review. Thanks.
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