When I saw the trailer for this movie, I just knew that I had to see it, because it contained three of my favorite things:  1.) Hugh Jackman, 2.) Baz Luhrmann and 3.) Nicole Kidman.  Seeing as I’m a huge fan of Baz Luhrmann’s and Nicole Kidman’s last project together, I’ve psyched myself up for a good ride.

Just like ‘Moulin Rouge’, Australia opens up with a fast-paced sequence with everybody talking fast, bombarding the audience with vital information about the movie.  The humor used for the first few scenes of the film was typically Baz Luhrmann’s; it was theatrical and pushed the boundaries of normal reasoning.  It was terribly overdone, and in anybody else’s hands, it would’ve been a disaster. 

And, as was Baz Lurhmann’s not so complex style, very quickly we learn who the villains are and given just a smidgen of insight to the workings of their minds.  We know that they’re evil and that they want to create a profit, but we never really get to see why they do the things they do so ruthlessly.  They’re so two-dimensional that they might as well have been the villains in those black and white cartoons that we used to see every Saturday mornings.  Hell, the villains in this movie even have the evil twirly mustache on their faces; just to be sure you get their evilness.

Nicole Kidman played Lady Sarah Ashley, a upper-class wife living in England whose husband was living “down under” tending a rundown cattle ranch that she oh-so-desperately wants to get rid off.  She is clearly a woman meant to be ahead of her time; she’s very hard headed, independent and prideful.  She’s no wilting flower who waits for the men in her life decide for her; she even flied down to Australia to draw up the papers for the sale of Far Away Downs ranch.   Having seen Moulin Rouge about a hundred and fifty times, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Nicole Kidman’s Satine.  The angles of the shots and some of the facial expressions were too much Satine-y for my taste.  Although I don’t quite get the point of having an all Australian cast and director of a movie set in Australia, about a movie about the Australian culture and then have the lead actress play an Englishwoman, I really don’t.

Hugh Jackman played Drover the drover.  I know, it’s not that clever, but he looked and acted the part of a cowboy beautifully.  For those who’re not in the know of ranch speak like me, a drover is someone who gets cattle and horses from point A (the ranch where they’re bred) to point B (the place where they’re sold off).  The acting was very good, I even found myself tearing up a little bit on some of the part where he grieves.  The character’s just a bit thin, in my opinion.  Some of the character’s motives weren’t explained adequately and thus felt two-dimensional. 

David Wenham as Neil Fletcher, the token villain.  It took me about ten minutes into the film to realize that it was indeed Faramir who was on screen.  I can tell that he wasn’t given much to work with; it was like he was just told to be the bad guy and be off with it.  He struggled to give the character depth but since we never really get to see why he’s the way he is, we don’t really get him.   There’s just no background to him, one can even interchange him for Moulin Rouge’s The Duke and still nobody would see or feel the difference.  Props for trying to make it work though; I actually bought it whenever he said, “Pride’s not power” and had the urge to slap the stupid mustache off his face.

Brandon Walters as Nulla, the kid born from an Aborigine mother and a white father.  The whole story is told in his voice and you get pangs of hurt whenever you see the look on his face whenever some white person calls him ‘Creamy’.  This little kid probably has the thickest set of eyelashes I’ve ever seen on anybody, which just makes his already ridiculously huge eyes look even bigger.  He played the part adequately, although I wish I was moved more during the emotional scenes. 

Because it was a Baz Luhrmann creation, there was no doubt that this movie would end happily.  Oh what it must feel to have such a big budget to work with.  This ran for two hours and thirty-five minutes, almost three hours, which, personally, I felt was too long.  The movie tried to be one of those romantic epics that tells us love overcomes everything.  The story was set in a ranch, there were cowboy-ish adventures and later on the country is torn by war.  I just felt like it had been done before, as one of those black and white movies about the wild, Wild West, you know? 

On the other hand, this was the first time I’ve gained insight as to the racism in Australia: the nerve of these white men to impregnate the Aboriginal women and then deny their children any future whatsoever.  I often take for-granted how far we’ve come as a race.  Sure there’re still cases of racism up to this day, but look at how much we’ve covered in the span of less than a hundred years.  We’ve an African-American president running the states now, for goodness sake.

6.8/10 because even though there were issues of animal slaughter, death, racism and war, not a drop of blood was seen on this film.