Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces firsthand.
Baz Luhrmann's sweeping epic has undeniably gorgeous outback cinematography and a grandiose visual style, but the film suffers from a bloated, melodramatic plot that feels like two different movies stitched together — a cattle-drive romance and a WWII thriller. The acting is competent with Kidman and Jackman delivering charismatic if slightly overwrought performances, but the script gives them little nuance to work with. The narrative borrows heavily from classic Hollywood epics without adding much new, and the ending drags through multiple false conclusions, undermining the emotional payoff. A visually impressive but dramatically unsatisfying epic.