Australia (2008)

Wow! Well what to say about this film, For starters it is 165 minutes long! Watching this in a theater would have been painful to anyone’s gluteus maximus! My family enjoyed watching this together in front of the good ole t.v. sitting on the living room sofas. This movie takes place in northern Australia before the start of World War II. Both Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman star in this entertaining look at the country and the history of the events that took place in this time period.

Nicole Kidman plays Lady Sarah Ashley who inherits a farm type ranch set in the northern part of Australia. Hugh Jackman plays a character named Drover who is a cattle driver trying to move 2,000 or so cattle along the way. As a Hollywood formula both of them meet up together and first bump heads but as the story progresses things begin to change for them. Both of them see the Japanese bombing of Darwin. This leads to Australia’s entry into war. From what I understand, director Baz Luhrmann co-wrote the story.

It was nice to see Bryan Brown from movies such as Cocktail (1988) with Tom Cruise and FX (1986). I always thought he was a better than average actor, and he appears as a villain in this tale. The child drives this story along the way, and is the centerpiece of the entire film. Basically, everyone else revolves around him in some way or another. The child (Nullah) is played by Brandon Walters who is of Aboriginal descent. And I thought he stole the movie, in a film like this it was easy to see why.

I must not leave out David Wenham from: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003). I just realized he also starred in Van Helsing (2004) along with Hugh Jackman. Perhaps they are friends in real life? The scenary and cinomatagraphy adds much to the film. This film also was nominated for Best Costume Design at the Oscars. I recommend seeing this, but be prepared to take your own intermission at some point along the way due to the length of the film.