Australia
It's the most expensive film ever to be made in Australia, but Baz Luhrmann's Nicole Kidman-starring drama, disappoints...

After making stylised films such as Moulin Rouge, Australian director Baz Luhrmann attempts a big love story with a dramatic historical setting- Australia is the Second World War. But the result is not the Antipodean Titanic that he would like it to be. The tone mixes comedy, romance and drama. Nicole Kidman is not good at comedy, however, and the first thirty minutes of Australia is a painful experience in which she tries too hard to be funny. She improves as the film becomes more serious, but the principal characters remain two-dimensional. The best thing is Australia itself, but Luhrmann includes landscapes that are clearly computer generated. Why call film Australia and then show a fictional creation? That error offers a metaphor for everything that is wrong with this film- it is kitsch pretending to be realism.