Live Life Team
As someone who’s lived in Australia (the country, not the movie!) for a while, I can safely say this movie is all about stereotypes. It has a basic plot, but most elements in the movie seem like they’re designed to boost Australian tourism among foreigners.
I headed out to the movies imagining ‘Australia’ would be different (in a really good way!) because it isn’t the cliché epic movie. But I was disappointingly wrong. You have the horses, the dust, the poor half-naked Aboriginal kid, the rugged Aussie bloke and of course Hugh Jackman’s Crocodile Dundee hat! It has the melodrama, the tear-jerking scenes, and the cinematographic appeal of a wonderful ad too. If ‘Lord of the Rings’ made New Zealand popular, ‘Australia’ is going to make Australia the next tourist haven!
Set in 1939, the Australian state of the Northern Territory forms the backdrop. Picture perfect town, Faraway Downs is where it all takes place. Nicole Kidman (Lady Sarah Ashley) is the wife of a now-dead English aristocrat, who heads to Australia to handle her husband’s cattle station. Hugh Jackman (Drover) is her Aussie beefcake posing as cattle minder. I don’t want to say much about the acting except that I’m more than convinced now that Forbes magazine was right when they named Nicole Kidman the least bankable star in Hollywood!
The only redeeming factor in the movie is the little kid, Brandon Walters who plays Nullah. If only we saw more of him and less of the other actors.
I love epic and historical movies, so when I tell you to skip this one, I’m not exaggerating. I bet the Aussies down under will try to forget this one as soon as possible, because ‘Australia’ is just a glorified advertisement for the director’s homeland and not the blockbuster it pretends to be!
