Movie critics give two cheers for Luhrmann's Australia

Nov 19, 2008, 1:37 GMT

Sydney - Neither masterpiece nor mess, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann's new cinematic epic Australia climbs above mediocrity through its cavalcade of local talent and the spectacular scenery of the Outback, critics said Wednesday.

'The film has broad appeal, particularly to the chick-flick market, with its sweeping, over-long melodramatic saga about cattle drives, the stolen generations, the bombing of Darwin and Hugh Jackman's abs,' Jim Schembri wrote in the Canberra Times.

Broadcaster David Stratton, doyen of local film critics, regretted that so many cliches had found their way into the story but was entertained all the same.

'This is partly because it looks so magnificent, partly because Luhrmann's vision is so stimulating and partly because the actors are, for the most part, so engaging in their roles,' he said.

Sandra Hall, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, thought the 165-minute film suffered from Luhrmann over-reaching - perhaps because of being given too much time and money by Rupert Murdoch's 20th Century Fox.

'The film's rapid changes of tone often make for a bumpy ride,' she said. 'After the long, long lead-up, the big set-piece - the bombing of Darwin - seems oddly perfunctory, maybe because so much energy has been expended on the orgasmic task of bringing all plot strands to a simultaneous climax.'

Some argued that Luhrmann had become a victim of his own ambition.

'I wanted to make a film that everyone could go and see,' the director told reporters at the Sydney premiere. 'You make an action- flick for 17-year-old boys, you make Sex and the City for women. ... I wanted to make one of those old-fashioned movies ... everyone can come to the table and have a good meal.'

Anne Barrowclough, writing in the London Times, said Luhrmann had successfully avoided sunburnt stereotypes and crafted 'an Australia of the 1940s that is at once compellingly beautiful and breathtakingly cruel.'

That Luhrmann did well despite taking on 'an overload of themes, styles, events and characters' was addressed by Stan James in the Adelaide Advertiser.

'He holds it together and delivers a huge entertainment with moments of greatness. It's corny, I know; it's also a film that has the looks as big as its title,' James wrote.

The Hollywood Reporter's Megan Lehmann, one of the few foreign critics to have seen Australia, reckoned that Lurhmann had managed to skirt embarrassment by taking the audience with him on roller-coaster ride.

'Despite some cringe-making Harlequin Romance moments between home-grown Hollywood stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, the 1940s- set Australia defies all but the most cynical not to get carried away by the force of its grandiose imagery and storytelling,' she said.