Australia - if you loved the country, you'll like movie.
an infrequent movie goer, a man, a creative, a writer, love to travel, wine lover
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MAR
20
2009
Australia —
I bring two credentials to this review of Australia, the film. One, I have lived in Australia and visited many of the places featured in the film. Two, I have produced and edited film.There were highlights of the film that gripped me. The scenes of the outback stations and life on them were a pretty good representation of that reality as I have known it. I also was moved to tears (I am such a sap) by the scenes in Darwin after the Japanese attack and the reconnection of the principals. It was moving.
I thought Nicole Kidman's performance was ordinary to say the most. Hugh Jackman was a little better, but not much. I found both of them to be barriers to engagement in the story.
On the other hand, I loved the cinematography and the reminders of the incredible outback.
I was encouraged that the film dealt with the circumstances of the Aboriginal children and their parents who faced separation as a result of the best intentions of misguided white Australians at the time. (incidentally, it has been my impression that the lost generation, as they were called, were not just those of mixed blood. Many pure-blooded Aboriginal children were carried off to be Europeanized.) I also was encouraged to see that the film tended to deal authentically with the attackers of Darwin. It was refreshing in a time when political correctness guides us to be vaque and general rather than telling things the way they were and are.
Bottom line - the film is filled with sweeping panoramas of the Austrralian outback, which represents about 80% of the nation's geography, making it a fascinating travelog. And the action scenes are credible, for those who are into cinema action.
I'd go see it. But I wouldn't expect too much from it - unless you are big Kidman and Jackman fans.
Australia is recommended by Eyerater
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