The year is 1939, an important year for movies. Both Gone With the Wind and Wizard of Oz were released this year. Australia is influenced strongly by both of these films. Somehow it seems everyone in Australia has already seen Wizard of Oz and knows the songs, despite the film not being a huge hit on initial release. Nicole Kidman even gets to "sing" Somewhere Over the Rainbow, a song which has a huge part in Australia.
Australia's intentions are good; create a classic Hollywood-style melodrama with sweeping melodramatic romance and epic action sequences. To portray aboriginals in a fair and completely un-racist way. It achieves the first, and falls a bit short in its intentions with the last. In fact, by portraying the aboriginals as god-like the film becomes a bit racist itself. The aboriginals really achieved what they did by being the same as any of us, not anything more.
The movie tells the grand story of a love between an uptight British woman, portrayed by Nicole Kidman, and an outdoorsman Australian, simply known as... The Drover, who is played by Hugh Jackman. There's also Nullah, a mixed aboriginal/white boy who Nicole's character Lady Sarah Ashley feels very attached to. The boy is bright and energetic and played flawlessly by first-timer Brandon Walters.
The acting on the whole is superb, the two leads (Hugh and Nicole) give their best performances yet. Their chemistry is very much there, we can really get a feel of some kind of love between the two. The aboriginal cast is simply fantastic. I had absolutely no problems with the acting. A few moments went a little over the top, but it all fits because this is a larger-than-life production.
Characterization is a bit thin. The characters are drawn out nicely, and Nicole's character especially has great development, but we have seen this character arc before. The same goes for The Drover. Nullah's character is well done and is truthfully a cute character, it does not feel forced on us at all.
I was engaged in the grand scheme of the story, but it also felt a bit thin. Everything works out a bit too conveniently in the end. The dialogue is great, and feels right with a few cheesy moments that do not go too far over the line. The characters interact like real people, only a bit more polished at saying lines without any stumbling. The pacing is not slow, most of the movie moves pretty fast, but the film still ends up feeling overlong.
The special effects are good. The CGI was well incorporated, not over-done or over-the-top, but it was always obvious what was CGI and what wasn't. The practical effects are much better, though are not used very often. The sound effects are a little generic and nothing ground-breaking, but not bad either. They are used well to enhance scenes like one with 1500 cattle stampeding towards a cliff.
I was personally dissapointed with the climax. Either I am looking at the wrong place, or the scenes involving the bombing of Darwin were just too short. In real life the attack did not last long, but I was hoping for scenes that involved the characters more in the action. We just do not get that enough in period romances. There is enough action to satisfy, though, the cattle drive scenes are awesome in their epic splendor. The short Darwin attack scene is amazing, which is why I wanted more, the seconds as the planes sweep in are very effective in building tension.
Baz abandoned his usual style to create a more typical and by-the-numbers motion picture, but it is in no way unoriginal. Yes, it borrows heavily from past films like Gone With the Wind in particular, but every one of Australia's many cliches has a little twist that gives it a unique and fresh feel. The production values help in giving the film its epic feel and make the film feel very polished. I am not going to lie, there was aspects that I was greatly dissapointed with, but overall I feel I can call the film a good one.
7.5/10
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