Hugh Jackman scored points for his exuberant hosting of the Oscars.
Crikey, the Wolverine even mocked himself for being an Australian playing an Australian in a movie called Australia.
Now he scores points for Australia itself. Baz Luhrmann's epic arrived on widescreen DVD this week. Contrary to popular belief -- and putting a lie to the weak North American box office, with only one quarter of its $200.8-million haul generated here -- Australia is a fabulously entertaining movie.
But it needs to be taken in the right context. With plucky Nicole Kidman and charismatic child actor Brandon Walters at its core with Jackman, Australia is a throwback, an old-fashioned melodrama.
It enthusiastically embraces the spirit of movies as varied as Gone With the Wind and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith.
In some crazy way, it is a haphazard history of movies. It has style points suggested by Casablanca, panoramics from Out of Africa, heroic cowboy motifs invoking John Wayne, the horse sense of The Man From Snowy River, romantic interludes as screwball as Bringing Up Baby, slapstick recalling City Slickers and -- literally -- scenes borrowed from The Wizard of Oz and Tora! Tora! Tora!
Set in 1939 and the early 1940s, the story covers class, race, national heritage, cattle drives, bronco busting, bar-room brawling, romance, native spiritualism and the abuse of Aborigine children.
There are even scenes recreating the 1942 bombing of Darwin in the Northern Territories by the Japanese (although some military-minded viewers found the CGI effects fake).
Obviously, this is a lot of history and fiction to cram into a single movie, even one meandering for 165 minutes. Not all elements sit well together.
Tonal shifts are sometimes difficult to negotiate, especially when early farce abruptly turns to tragedy as Luhrmann explores the issue of the Stolen Generations.
Like Canada did with its First Nations, Australian officially sanctioned the kidnapping of Aborigine and mixed-race children to educate them in mission schools, where their native heritage was brutally suppressed. The movie juxtaposes these dramatic scenes with romantic stuff and nonsense.
This is a Baz Luhrmann movie-movie, however. His Red Curtain Trilogy might have ended with Moulin Rouge!, but that did not mean he would surrender his panache. This time, he turns the Down Under topsy turvy. Australia is serious fun.
The DVD offers an excellent transfer. Sadly, the only extras are two deleted scenes.
Australia deserves a big Luhrmann-izing treatment in the future.
I've Loved You So Long
Bilingual English actress Kristin Scott Thomas stars in an underappreciated treasure of 2008, the French drama I've Loved You So Long. Philippe Claudel's masterful depiction of a family healing its wounds debuted on widescreen DVD this week. It plays in French with English subtitles.
In a performance as searingly honest as it is subtle, Thomas plays a woman going to live with her younger sister in Nancy, France, after getting out of jail. She spent 15 years incarcerated for murder. Now she must face her demons and rebuild herself from fragments of memory.
This film is an example of what French cinema does to perfection: Create an intimate portrait of a human being in crisis, without embellishments, working with quotidian details.
The poetic Claudel does commentary on his deleted scenes. Why not a full-length commentary? Meanwhile, you can also watch an all-English dubbed version of his film with Thomas voicing her scenes. Why bother? This is a French film. Watch the original.
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Omigawd! Chatterbox Chihuahuas -- hundreds of them! -- plus other talking mutts, a larcenous rat and a goofy iguana. Beverly Hills Chihuahua, a live-action movie with special effects moving the animals' mouths, tells the story of a pampered pooch from Beverly Hills who gets kidnapped in Mexico.
Even with name voice talent led by Drew Barrymore, Andy Garcia and George Lopez, this stupid movie is unwatchable, a mere gimmick. For those who disagree, this week's DVD has full and widescreen on one disc. Modest extras include director Raja Gosnell's commentary, bloopers and an amusing animated short about Chihuahuas.
