Australia 
2008  PG-13  DRAMA  2h 45min
CAST— Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, David Wenham
MUSIC— David Hirschfelder  DIRECTOR— Baz Luhrmann

     A dynamic, old-fashioned film of broad scope and vision, Australia shifts its focus between family drama and rousing war adventure. Nicole Kidman plays Lady Sarah Ashley, who visits her late husband’s Australian cattle ranch, Faraway Downs, in 1939. As her guide is the strapping Hugh Jackman, known only as the Drover, a tough as nails cowboy with a heart of gold. They soon discover, through the eyes of an Aboriginal boy named Nullah, that the local cattle baron and his cronies have been stealing the best of their herd. In order to keep Faraway Downs operational, they must gather the motley denizens of the Downs and begin a cattle drive; if they can deliver the goods to the Allied Forces before their competitor they’ll be sitting pretty. Along their journey Lady Ashley and the Drover inevitably draw closer, but more surprisingly they grow more attached to Nullah. But their little family is not to last. Nullah is taken to live in an orphanage and the war reaches Australia with a bang. Can they be reunited despite the horrors that engulf their homeland? An exciting film from start to finish, despite its shift of focus. Crikey.
OUR RATING— ***