Masand's verdict: Australia is a test of patience

SLOPPY PLOT: Rather than being old-fashioned and classic, Australia is old-school and melodramatic.

ibnlive.com is on mobile now. Read news, watch videos
be a Citizen Journalist. Log on to m.ibnlive.com NOW!

Related Stories

Top Headlines

Top Videos

Most Popular

• Politicians play coy; avoid debate on gay sex 

• Serena wins Wimbledon women's singles title | Match in pics 

• Speeding bus falls on Howrah rail tracks, 10 dead 

• Heavy rains throw Mumbai out of gear 

• 6 sharpshooters of Chhota Shakeel held in Delhi: cops 

• New swine flu case takes India's tally to 129 

• Goodbye to Mumbai slums, child star moves into flat 

• Cops accused of killing man to win medals | Watch 

• Maid insists Shiney raped her: women's panel chief 

• Exhume bodies of Shopian women in Kashmir: High Court 

• Railways fail to provide basic facilities to passengers 

• Budget on Campus: Young India's expectations from FM 

• Speeding bus falls on Howrah rail tracks, 10 dead 

• Politicians play coy; avoid debate on gay sex 

• Watch: Cops shoot man to win medals 

• MJ to be buried in style in a 14-carat casket 

• Surviving The City: Moving ahead despite Necrosis 

• Politicians play coy; avoid debate on gay sex 

• Axe the Tax: CNN-IBN takes public tax complaints to FM 

• CJ appeals for help to find missing daughter 

• Second nursing student alleges Andhra MLA raped her 

• Maid insists Shiney raped her: women's panel chief 

• CM helpless, admits Maoists extort Rs 300 cr annually 

• Bus falls on rail tracks in Kolkata, 8 killed 

• Cops accused of killing man to win medals 

• Exhume bodies of Shopian women in Kashmir: High Court 

• Goodbye to Mumbai slums, child star moves into flat 

• Politicians play coy; avoid debate on gay sex 

• 10 years of Kargil, heroes recall the war 

• Serena wins Wimbledon women's singles title 

Photogallery

Find us on Facebook | Join IBNLive community

Stay ahead with G-Talk Buddy | Click now!

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman

Director: Baz Luhrmann

Baz Luhrmann, director of Moulin Rouge is no stranger to spectacle, but his latest offering Australia is a failed attempt at pulling off a David Lean-style sprawling epic.

The film's a heady mix of many genres including romance, adventure and war, but rather than being old-fashioned and classic, it's old-school and melodramatic.

The film set in 1939 Australia stars Nicole Kidman as Lady Sarah Ashley, a plucky Brit widow trying to save her ranch from an evil cattle baron.

Her allies include a half-caste boy she befriends who's being victimized by the government's racial policies against Aborigines, and the handsome cowboy (played by Hugh Jackman) who drives her bulls to market.

To be honest, after sitting through some two hours of campfires, cattle drives and mad stampedes, the film looks like it's finally ending, but just then you realise to your absolute horror that the last act is still ahead -- a good forty minutes or so dedicated to the World War II subplot.

Breathtakingly photographed, but sloppy from trying to pack in too much, Australia is a test of patience for any true-blue movie buff who will more than likely be on his knees praying for the film to finally end.

The romance between Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman's characters is schmaltzy and ridden with clichés, and the film's portrayal of Aborigines as uniformly kind and mystical beings seems counter-productive to its message against racial prejudice.

If Australia fails, it's not for lack of trying, but perhaps for trying too hard. I'm going with two out of five and at best an average rating for Baz Luhrmann's ambitious but flawed Australia, a film that feels longer than an actual flight to Down Under.

Rating: 2 / 5 (Average)