Australia

For the past month, I couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing a plug for the movie Australia . Even worse was the television, I was barraged by a slew of trailers and Nicole Kidman interviews. You’d think the outback never looked better, but sometimes too much hype can only lead to a dismal outcome. When you head to the theater a week earlier in anticipation of a movie that, apparently, hasn’t come out yet, you know there is such a thing as too much pre-press.

So now that this viewing has been put into context, a week later, I’ve purchased a ticket to the movie and relaxed into my seat ready to see something as visually beautiful and creatively remixed as Baz Luhrmann’s previous films Romeo + Juliet or Moulin Rouge! Now, I know that neither of these films are everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s what excited me. If we’re talking metaphors, they are definitely my cup of tea, they’re technically the specials of the day at my favorite local cafe!

Set in late 1939 prior to World War II, Nicole Kidman plays Lady Sarah Ashley, an English aristocrat who heads to Australia to find her scumbag husband. What she finds instead is a murdered husband and a dilapidated estate overrun with cattlemen. When baron baddies deviously plot to takeover her land, she hires a drover (Hugh Jackman, Hollywood’s Sexiest Man to safely herd her 1,500 cattle to Darwin, Australia. It’s a treacherous journey and the battle is nowhere near over, even when they reach their destination. Of course, the prim and proper lady who turns out to be tough as nails and the rugged cowboy fall in love. And narrating the romance is a young Aboriginal boy (Brandon Walters) who’s fleeing the white men who want to capture him and turn him over to missionaries because of his mixed background.

Sounds like an epic story, right? Luhrmann puts together an optimal cast, with a beautiful, if not typical, soaring romance. He borrows from movies such Gone With the Wind, The African Queen and Out of Africa. But where his use of popular culture or rehashed tales have always been utilized well in his prior films in new, thoughtful or nuanced ways, here, they’re a reminder that this movie just isn’t as great as the movies he pays homage to in Australia. To top it all off, the movie feels like it ends at least three times, but doesn’t, and it manages to clock in around three hours. A movie I was antsy to see became the movie I was antsy to flee about two hours and 30 minutes into the screen time.

Where Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge! took me to a new world and set me adrift with their ever-changing camera work, sprawling shots and swelling scores and soundtracks, Australia aims for each of these highs but just falls short every time. Lurhmann, I’m sure, wants this movie to be the next great love story of our time. Though, it is an enjoyable film, it never reaches epic status.