Grand Oz

I loved Australia, Baz Luhrmann’s epic love letter to his homeland.

Alright – I didn’t love-loved. I just loved it, enough that I’d totally see it again, def, but not enough that I’d urge you to drop everything and go see it right away. Perhaps you should wait a week – oh wait; it’s been a week since it opened already.

Go see it.

Alright, Australia’s no Moulin Rouge!, but it’s a beautiful film nonetheless. In fact, Australia’s two films in one – the first half is about love, the second about war, and both halves amount to a visually rich 155-minute film.

And Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman star in it, so that’s two pluses right there.

If only she were still able to express…anything, and he had been shirtless more, I’d say this film is very nearly perfect.

But it isn’t.

The story is set in pre-World War II Northern Down Under. Luhrmann directs Kidman with the same affection he showed her on Moulin Rouge!, but she just can’t return the favor because, seven years later, she appears frozen in time (and you know what I mean).

Her Lady Sarah Ashley, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch and reluctantly pacts with a stock-man simply known as The Drover (played by Sexiest Man Alive Jackman) in order to protect it from a takeover plot, is meant to be cool, but as her icy demeanor begins to melt, we can’t see that in her face.

Crickey! That’s a big problem.

Jackman is left to emote for the both of them, and while he finally get to prove that behind all that Wolverine brawn of movies past hid a dashing leading man, he can’t be expected to carry the entire production. Not even his broad shoulders can burden such a heavy, mostly effective load.

What redeems Australia is the most obvious: As the Lady Ashley and The Drover drive 2,000 head of cattle over an unforgiving landscape they fall in love in sweeping fashion.

That’s just lovely to see.

Soon the two are playing house, and mom and dad to Nullah (Brandon Walters), an aboriginal child, in spite of society’s objections – after all, “Just because it is doesn’t mean it should be” – and eventually, are separated by a war that finally has infiltrated their piece of heaven.

Australia will not strike everybody’s fancy, but while I had a few problems with, I’m still very much infatuated with everything about...and I’m looking most forward to seeing it again.

My Rating ***

Photo: SunTimes.com.