Not Such a G'Day

The day after Thanksgiving is usually almost as busy at the movie theaters as it is at the malls, but I nevertheless braved the crowd tonight to see Australia.

It was essentially one factor alone that got me to go: the director, Baz Luhrmann. He hasn't made a movie in seven years, since Moulin Rouge. But that movie remains in my top 10 favorites, and I've also enjoyed his other films (Romeo and Juliet, Strictly Ballroom). This was a case where I didn't really need any more than his name attached to the movie to go.

I wish I'd been a little more discerning. It wasn't an awful movie, but it wasn't remotely the sort of movie I think I was looking for. For one thing, it appears that Baz Luhrmann has spent the last seven years deciding he wants to make an entirely different kind of movie. Oh, there were certainly elements of his style peppered throughout the movie (more on that in a moment), but this time he was out to make an "epic."

Australia felt like a movie that, budget and special effects aside, actually could have been made in the time in which it was set, the 1940s. Romance, adventure, separation, heartbreak, all set against a sprawling frontier landscape and a backdrop of war; stylistically, this was Baz Luhrmann's take on Gone with the Wind. And at two hours, forty-five minutes, it was nearly as long.

It looked fantastic. That brand of heightened theatricality that was the hallmark of Moulin Rouge (and to a lesser extent, his earlier films) was present here. Select moments looked "overly perfect," as though they were paintings brought to life. The movie also had very earnest performances from all the actors.

But it didn't have much else going for it. Those performances were in the service of rather shallow characters, and the plot meandered in a way that might be suitable for a multi-night television mini-series, but seemed endless and unfocused in a crowded movie theater.

If "scope" is your thing, you'd probably love this movie; it has scope in every conceivable sense of the word. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. I rate it a C+.