As long as Baz Luhrmann is alive, so is romance!
As I’ve said before: I strongly believe that a woman’s first “dance-movie” will affect her future life choices (at least concerning movie watching). Mine was Strictly Ballroom and my taste in film is thereafter.
Baz’s latest creation is Australia, a tale of a British aristocrat who, in 1939, finds herself traveling to her husband’s farm in the northern parts of Australia. There she intends to snatch her husband away from his affairs with the “blackies”, the aboriginal women, and sell the farm and all the cattle.
However, fate has something else in store and when she arrives at the farm she finds her husband murdered and some of her cattle stolen. Then the story goes on and on for three more hours. We see beautiful landscapes, a whole lot of Hugh Jackman’s upper torso and learn a great deal about what happens to the little creamy colored kids that litter the farms.
These creamies were children of white men and aboriginal women. As they were not considered strictly black the church took it on itself to turn these heathens into good citizens. As late as the 70s, kids could be taken from their mothers to be placed in homes where they would be re-educated. In practice this meant prohibiting them from learning anything of their aboriginal heritage. But just as their mothers, they were still considered second class citizens.
The main charachters are played by Nicole Kidman (I was so distracted by her swollen lip that I hardly had time to notice the quality of her acting) and Hugh Jackman, but the real star of the movie is the little boy, Brandon Walters, who plays Nullah – a creamy that lives on Nicole’s farm. He is also the narrator of the movie, like a story-teller giving us his favourite fairytale. Because this is what Baz’s movies are about – they are stories, often very predictable but beautifully crafted, with a sense of magic in them. Or maybe they are just a little more colorful way of describing life itself…
I added the trailer just because it is so nice 🙂
Interesting and succinct write up. Some reviews really drag it out.
I thought they pushed pretty hard on the creamy thing. They did show a lot of scenery and of Hugh Jackman’s torso as you said! Ha.
What happened to Nicole’s lip? It did not bother me as much. I think she is holding up okay.
Here is my take if you are interested: