Review of Australia (2008) by Matthew B — 04 Dec 2011

This isn't as bad a film as the critics make out, and I think Nicole Kidman has been a bit hard on herself because in this film it's pretty hard to find a character, except for the young Nullah played to perfection by Brandon Walters, who isn't overplayed. Hugh Jackman's Drover is so Australian, it made me cringe; his accent and spoken voice is often drooling with so much Aussie bloke it's sickening. And Bryan Brown's David Wenham's bad guys were almost comic book character bad. And I don't care how hot Hugh Jackman may be, the shower scene at the camp with the bucket of water, while the prim Lady Ashley look on in horror/lust, is just way too daytime drama for me! It can't be because of bad acting that these characters are so cardboard cut out - they are all great actors so it must lie with the director.

The thing is, with Australia, and what seemed obvious from before this film was made, is that Baz Lurhman, while brilliant as director for Moulin Rouge, was just trying too damn hard with this one. What may have worked with Moulin Rouge in terms of melodrama and maybe even a bit of sentimentality, worked because it was a story and setting so far removed from reality - everyone was singing for one thing! But in Australia, Lurhman is trying to create a mammoth retelling of part of Australia's history, using fact to tell his story. The melodrama and piled on sentimentality just smacks of being too contrived. He's tried too hard to make an Australian Gone with the Wind; fortunately the producers of Gone with the Wind had the good sense not to call it America!

The thing is, for all it's talent and resources, Australia, from its title to its story, is just too contrived. Having said that, it is beautiful to look at, brings out a few laughs, and does make one, as an Australian, hate certain aspects of our history if one did not already. Brandon Walters steals the show - Kidman is right when she remarks at how great a performer he is. The thing is, in the Australian film industry, is his talent going to be wasted?

If Baz Lurhman had made Australia sixty years ago it would have worked brilliantly. But film making and audiences are different today than they were in the days of Scarlet O'Hara and Rhett Butler, when a line such as "frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" could be uttered with all the dexterity of Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker's Dracula and go down in history as one of the most famous lines from a movie.

Australia is a good film; it is enjoyable; it is dramatic; it is gorgeous to look at and gorgeous to listen to (scored by David Hirschfelder); and it made me want to go back a few decades and slap around a few supposedly well intentioned but tragically misguided and misinformed white fellas!