Those who love visually escaping the urban setting and are fascinated with a cowboy's cattle drive challenges will love this weekend's release "Australia." There's also an interesting subplot as to Australia's mixed race child trafficking in the early 1940s, and the expected Wild West vigilante struggle against corruption.
The film's photographic beauty, along with Nicole Kidman and Hugh "Sexiest-Man-Alive" Jackman's character development, kept the near-three hour film moving, but it was 12 year old Australian Brandon Walters, his compelling eyes and heart-endearing role that held the epic together.
The story of the Japanese attack on Australia is not clearly explained for the historically illiterate, and more attention could have been paid to explaining that period's intra-national racial divisions, but overall, "Australia" is a movie that critics aren't so enamored with, but one Kidman and Jackman fans won't want to miss.
Four stars...
