One of the things you have to admire about Baz Luhrmann is he takes risks. On all three of his previous movies i went in expecting to hate them: a ballroom-dancing comedy? a modernised Romeo & Juliet with guns? a pop-song musical? But damn it if i didn't love all three. Australia is an equal risk and i admire Luhrmann once again for making a film no one would, hell probably could make. Unfortunately this time it didn't work.
Australia's biggest problem is tone. It is daft. Tonally it fits with Strictly Ballroom or Moulin Rouge! but that tone doesn't work for this subject. It is often intentionally funny in the first half but the humour comes from a high-camp angle. The lingering soaped-up shot of Jackman; the almost moustache-twirling villainy of David Wenham; the blatant process-shot FX; the CG settings; the outrage and outrageousness are all deliberately silly but the film is going to get serious and at its heart is a frankly rather beautiful story element about the stolen generation of aboriginal children that is done a massive dis-service by this early and lingering tone.
The film doesn't recover. When the second world war comes along the film would love to be, as judging by the marketing Fox would like you to think too, Gone With The Wind; but Gone With The Wind didn't spend its first half being His Girl Friday! - both great films, but hardly a good tonal match.
The film's saving grace is the fantastic performance by Brandon Walters as Nullah, the aboriginal child Kidman comes to mother, and that Jackman and Kidman do there best. But here, ultimately, Luhrmann has doomed the whole enterprise with a style and approach that really seems at odds with his story. Had he gone the full Gone With The Wind old-fashioned epic i suspect this may have worked. Shame.
Awards chances: not a chance!
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