Australia may have been in the tradition of "Out of Africa" (romantic adventure,good-looking leads, beautiful, exotic setting, mistreatment of native people) but everywhere that "Africa" and other quality romantic adventure/epics have been great, this was lacking. Some have compared it to Gone with the Wind, a comparison not deserved. Those works had an advantage that Australia did not have, they were based on Isak Dinesen's writings and Margaret Mitchell's beloved novel. I had looked forward to this film but was disappointed. Australia had great potential and did have some good moments. Some characters would have been interesting but weren't developed. Mostly, it was impossible to tell what the movie wanted to be. The bit at the beginning with the cartoon maps and Kidman marching around comically reminded me of A Series of Unfortunate Events. Then it was Classic Western Cattle Drive (done fairly well), but then it headed somewhere else again - taking a turn at WWII Pearl Harbor...this became tiresome, and took a lot of time. There were bits that were just too implausible to be taken seriously - making it hard to take the film as a whole seriously. (A few inexperienced women and a child easily beat a number of experienced cowboys racing to drive cattle onto a ship, parts of the formal dance scene, 2 men rescue 20 or so children from a half dozen or so armed Japanese soldiers - only one man using one gun fights off the soldiers and only that man is hit.) The issue of aboriginal children is compelling,but on this, Rabbit-proof Fence is a far better movie and a true story - an amazing adventure, but a real one.
Australia
(2008)
somewhat entertaining but could have been so much better
30 November 2008
Warning: Spoilers