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SINGAPORE: It is the long-awaited epic romance from "Moulin Rouge" director Baz Luhrmann - his impassioned love letter to his homeland Australia.
But as evident as Luhrmann’s blood, sweat and love is on screen, "Australia" ends up being more of a belaboured effort thanks to its drawn-out pacing and overcooked melodrama.
Luhrmann’s muse Nicole Kidman (back in uptight "The Others" mode) is tailor-made to play fish-out-of-water British aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley who, in 1939, travels all the way to outback Australia to find her husband murdered and herself the new boss of his cattle station. She’s forced to work with the one man her husband trusts, rough-and-ready Drover (sex-on-legs Hugh Jackman), in order to save the business and compete for a lucrative contract to provide cattle to the army.
Along the way, she also takes under her wing half-caste Aboriginal boy Nullah (Brandon Walters) whose grandfather, an Aboriginal elder with magical powers, has been framed for her husband’smurder.
Australia is maddeningly slow and obtuse at times, and dramatically captivating at others. Even with an old-school set-up and A-list goodlookers delivering big performances (with surprising chemistry) that would not be out of place in a 1930s Hollywood epic, Luhrmann’s overextension and inability to let go of a tediously superfluous final act prevents Australia from becoming the classic it had the potential to be.
The initial frolicking fun is juxtaposed nicely against the sensitive exploration ofaboriginal traditions, and is captured beautifully in the earlier expansive visuals and action.
However, just when the music swells and you think the credits are coming, Luhrmann adds a “second” movie that does nothing to spice up the increasingly predictable proceedings of the almost three-hour-long film.
Had he left us with his leading lady and studly man in that passionate rain-soaked kiss,Luhrmann would have given us a highly satisfying cinematic experience and extraordinarily beautiful showcase of his beloved Land Down Under. - TODAY/sh
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