Review of Australia (2008) by Tash W — 02 Oct 2010

Entertaining and visually dynamic, but by no means the classic we anticipated.

I think that its main downfall was that it was too drawn out; all the character's individual plots were stretched, some unfortunately snapped. The film generally lacked originality, some sense of interaction with the audience and even a steady, structured story line. I just hope audiences worldwide don't sterotype Aussies for some of embarassingly unrealistic parts in 'Australia', like looking fresh and clean up in Darwin? Even though the cinematography and photography were quite close to home, Australia is sadly far from Baz Lurhmen's best work and I felt we needed strong refreshment from Kidman's emotionally depriving face after about the first half-hour of viewing. Misleadingly, the basis of the appeal of the movie was its 'all-star' cast - Hugh Jackman portrayed his part well, but David Wenham's spot light stealing performance was definately the most inspiring out of the whole cast.