Film Screening 27th March, 2009

Poster for Australia

Australia 

8:00 PM, 27th March, 2009
No Guests

  • M
  • 165 mins
  • 2008
  • Baz Luhrmann
  • Baz Luhrmann, Stuart Beattie, Ronald Harwood, Richard Flanagan
  • Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Bryan Brown, Brandon Walters

Lady Sarah Ashley is an English aristocrat who is convinced that her husband's extended stint in Australia has more to do with extramarital affairs than with the family's business interests. Soon after arriving at the Northern Territory cattle station she finds herself a widow, and so the story unfolds. Initially uninterested in the station or the people, questions about the circumstances of her husband's death provide reason enough to stay. Love, war and a score to settle come together to round out the plot.

This much-touted film by Baz Luhrmann is set during WWII in the Northern Territory, culminating in the Japanese attack on Darwin. The movie uses a potentially mundane major plot line (one family's attempt to monopolise the cattle industry) but keeps us interested with breathtaking scenery, a love story and a commentary on the treatment of Aboriginal children.

The movie received a lot of press, but reviews were mixed. I had the opportunity to view this film overseas while visiting family and they enjoyed it, but I found it a bit predictable and cute; but isn't that what a love story is supposed to be? The introduction of young Brandon Walters as Nullah really makes the movie.

Shaun Howard