ARSETRAYA

Well I finally went and saw it…..and it wasn't that bad. But it wasn't that great either. The most over-hyped film in recent times…..Baz Luhrmann's AUSTRALIA. Luhrmann has a very unique style of film-making which belongs more in vaudeville and cabaret than probably celluloid. It has worked to astounding success in his past three films Strictly Ballroom, Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge. His version of Romeo and Juliet still remains one of my favourite films. Moulin Rouge was the weakest out of the three due to its poor script but because it was a musical, it got away with it. AUSTRALIA does not.

However all is not lost. I still enjoyed this film. It could have been a masterpiece; if only Baz had thought to hire a scriptwriter or at least completed Narrative 101.

The golden thread that keeps holding the film together is Brandon Walters as the narrator, the young "half-cast" aboriginal boy, Nullah. If it wasn't for this young boy, this film would be totally lost. He is a complete natural and has a beautiful presence on screen.

AUSTRALIA tells the story of Lady Sarah Ashley, played by Nicole Kidman, who comes to Darwin, Australia to confront her wayward husband who is running his large cattle station Faraway Downs. Drover played by Hugh Jackman is sent to meet Lady Ashley in Darwin. There is friction immediately between the two and they fight all the way to Faraway Downs where upon arrival Lady Ashley discovers her husband dead.

Neal Fletcher, played deliciously by David Wenham is the resident station manager who wants "to take care" of everything for Lady Ashley. He suggests that it is best to sell the property. There are ten thousand head of cattle that need to be taken to Darwin for export and it is best that Lady Ashley cleans her hands of it. Lady Ashley is suspicious. She is befriended by Nullah who tells her how her husband really died. She realises then that Mr Fletcher's motives are ulterior and is equally appalled by his maltreatment of Nullah and his family. So she sacks him and he walks out with all the men who were going to drove the cattle to Darwin. And this is where Drover comes in. He has to help her get the cattle to Darwin so as to save Faraway Downs and her fortune.

If the film had been purely about their journey to Darwin, it would have been perfect. It had all the hallmarks of a true epic western. The scenes are well developed. There is a narrative arch….the massive task of getting ten thousand head of cattle to Darwin through the most remote desolate exotic country in the world while being chased by nasty cattle barons has the audience gunning for the cast; not to mention the scenery of the Pilbara is breathtaking. I spent the entire first half of the film thinking "what has everyone been complaining about? I love this film!". Until the second half commences…..

It is obvious then that Baz Luhrmann had only written half the script before he started filming. The film goes from being an epic western to Home and Away Goes to War with a $150 million budget. The cattle are delivered to the stockyards in Darwin and then the story loses complete focus. At one moment it is a story about the stolen generations then it is happy families back on the farm on Faraway Downs and then it is back to Darwin for a war story. Lady Ashley seems to drive back and forth between Darwin and Faraway Downs as if she's popping out for a bottle of milk. At one moment she's staging a revolution to have Nullah to be returned from children's home at Mission Island then the next scene she's off to join the war effort manning the radios at the army headquarters chatting to other characters as if they've known each other for years. It becomes a farce. …entertaining but for all the wrong reasons.

Nicole Kidman has been hardly darn by critics reviewing this film. She's thoroughly enjoyable as Lady Ashley. It is her leading man and director who have let her down. Hugh Jackman comes from the Paul Hogan School of Acting and is simply woeful in the role as Drover. He seemed to have only three expressions: crikey, struth and crying seal. Whereas Baz Luhrmann simply needed a good script editor to keep his story focussed instead of making it up as he went along.

AUSTRALIA is a flawed epic. It's still worth the watch on the big screen purely for the amazing cinematography and Brandon Walters' performance. It does seem a great pity that such a huge amount of not only Hollywood funding but Australian taxpayer's money (to the tune of $40 million) have been waisted on special effects, set design and costumes when the basics such as story had been ignored. We see this time and time again in Hollywood, but it's rare that Australians get to tell their own stories on such a grand scale. AUSTRALIA was an opportunity to tell an Australian story and for all the funding provided (nearly $AUD200 million), to tell it well. This opportunity has been missed and it will be a very long time before Hollywood will be confident to throw such a huge amount of money behind an Australian story again. And that is a great shame.

C