AUSTRALIA (2008) (***)

Audiences and critics alike have been split on Baz Luhrmann's epic Australian melodrama. It's certainly a throwback to the "big" pictures of the past. While I wouldn't dare say it comes close to classics like GONE WITH THE WIND or THE AFRICAN QUEEN, the film shares much of the same tone and ambition as those films. Driven by good performances, I found myself caught up in the story, especially its gorgeous vistas.

Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman, DEAD CALM) travels to Australia to deal with the sale of her cattle ranch. When she arrives she discovers her husband has been murdered and the locals are blaming the Aboriginal medicine man King George (David Gulpilil, WALKABOUT). His half-Aboriginal, half-white grandson Nullah (Brandon Walker) knows the truth, but he must watch who he trusts because the authorities are rounding up "creamies" to breed the black out of them. Her prim and proper ways don't mesh well with her rough Aussie guide Drover (Hugh Jackman, X-MEN), but she has to rely on him when she's forced to fire her ranch hand Neil Fletcher (David Wenham, LORD OF THE RINGS), who has been secretly helping her competition, King Carney (Bryan Brown, F/X), ruin her Faraway Downs ranch.

This film has everything that classic melodramas had — romance, scheming villains, cute kids, a cattle run, war. The characters aren't as rich as the classics in this genre, but they're no more cliché than Rose and Jack in TITANIC. How is AUSTRALIA that much different than James Cameron's big boat movie? Except a bunch of Oscars and a far bigger profit. You got lovers from opposite worlds. You have a handsome man helping a sheltered woman come out of her shell. You have a one-dimensional villain. You have potential tragedy. You have a historical setting as the backdrop.

I found Kidman's prissy Sarah to be quite humorous at times, and better yet never annoying. She reminded me of Katharine Hepburn's character in THE AFRICAN QUEEN. Jackman is always charming and he's perfectly cast as the outback-loving roughneck. He's also perfect for scenes where he dumps water over his shirtless body. Romance novel cover anyone? But for me the most interesting character was Nullah. Walker is a wonderful find. His fresh face lights up the screen and his pull between the world of whites and Aborigines was the most original part of the story.

Of course we've seen all the pieces of this film in other films, even the story of the Aboriginal kids in such films as RABBIT-PROOF FENCE. But you can say that about a lot of films. It's always about how those pieces fit together. Luhrmann knows how to set up characters and make us care what happens to them. It's not like the "big" films of today where cardboard cutout characters get in the way of fights between giant robots. In many ways, the love story between Ashley and Drover is an underdog tale. You want them to get together because it's supposed to be that way, but I found myself rooting for their success because of how it would help Nullah. The mother-son relationship between Sarah and the boy is key.

With the visuals, Luhrmann even goes to the artificial style of the classic melodramas. He exaggerates the beauty of Australia from the plains to the deserts to the mountains. It's beautiful to look at. While we've seen this story before, set against this new backdrop, it takes on new life. He even works in a bit of magic as a nod to the traditions of the Aboriginal people. In the Golden Age of Hollywood, big epics where supposed to transport us to magical lands with characters on a mission that we care about. Give me good actors playing a prissy woman, an Aussie cattle driver and a charming Aboriginal child in a standard, but solid, melodrama over a 2 1/2 hour commercial for action figures any day.