Australia (2008)
Though I think its 2:45 running time is a bit much, Australia is good solid entertainment. It’s listed in the action/adventure genre, but it seems to defy accurate categorization. You’ll often think it’s a comedy, a drama or a love story. In every instance, however, Australia’s pace stays upbeat.
Australia is not the typical effects gorged action movie we’ve come to expect in the genre today. Rather, Australia uses a more realistic approach to creating action scenes and situations. If you’re an action fan and you’re looking for something akin to one of the Indiana Jones movies, you’ll no doubt be disappointed.
Australia stars Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Bryan Brown, David Wenham, Jack Thompson, David Gulpilil and Brandon Walters. The film was directed by Baz Luhrman of Moulin Rouge fame. Baz Luhrman also co-produced and co-wrote the movie’s screenplay.
Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman are perfectly cast and just as perfectly paired in this quasi-epic tale. David Wenham also does an outstandingly good job of being bad – as a bad guy, that is. He oozes evil in every scene he’s in. Finally, young Brandon Walters, who plays the half breed child who narrates and stars is sensational. So much talent in such a small, young body.
Australia is predominately set in the northern reaches of Australia circa 1940. Nicole Kidman is a plucky member of the English aristocracy who treks to Australia to check up on her husband and his struggling cattle enterprise. She suspects him of philandering and wants to convince him to sell the money losing cattle station and return to England.
Before Kidman’s husband is murdered by a cattle competitor’s lackey, he sends ‘the Drover’ (Hugh Jackman) to Darwin, Australia to collect Kidman and bring her to the remote cattle station. Predictably, Kidman and Jackman do not hit it off.
When Kidman and Jackman reach the Australia cattle station, which is Australia speaks for ‘cattle ranch,’ and she discovers her husband is dead, she convinces Jackman to lead her herd to market. She believe that she can sell the herd in the lucrative pre-war market for enough money to put the station back on its feet and return to England a wealthy woman. Jackman doesn’t have enough men to drive the herd, so Kidman – and everyone else on the station – must join in on the perilous drive across the rugged terrain of Australia.
I don’t feel I’m spoiling anything by telling you that Kidman and Jackman ultimately get together as a result of the shared hardships of the cattle drive. They work the station together, and even sort of adopt the half breed child they’ve come to love. Jackman’s wanderlust puts and end to the good times, though, and then World War II hits Australia with the bombing of Darwin.
I’ve seen several reviews of Australia that say it’s predictable and that there’s nothing new – intimating almost that it’s somewhat hackneyed. I’ll have to argue that perspective. Anyone who thinks there is such a thing as a ‘new’ love story just hasn’t read or watched much at all. The same holds true for action and adventure movies. When you see Indiana jump out of a plane at 10,000 feet – with only a rubber raft – you do know he’ll survive. And despite their initial actions and dialog, when two movie stars (lovers) meet in a movie, we pretty much know what’s going to happen.
In Australia there are good guys and bad guys – and you’ll have no trouble telling them apart. There are action scenes and loves scenes and great vistas of the land down under. As I said in the beginning, Australia is good solid entertainment.
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