And so to the other big location pic of 2008/9: Australia. I finally caught it on the very small screen – on the way back from Locations Trade Show 09.
And what can I tell you about it? Well, I can see why so many people hated it, why the critics whipped themselves into a frothing rage of apoplexy. It’s a schizophrenic sort of film that swings awkardly between a whole host of genre pics including Crocodile Dundee, Pearl Harbour, Rabbit Proof Fence, Gone with the Wind, Charge of the Light Brigade, anything Disney with a cute kid, anything with John Wayne and cows. I am also strangely reminded of Who Framed Roger Rabbit – to do, more than anything, I think with Nicole Kidman’s cartoon-hammy, wasp-waisted English aristocrat. There’s even some soft porn in there – cue Hugh Jackman, all shoulders and chest, in a bizarre little shower scene. Nothing much in the movie makes emotional sense. But damn it, it does look good; Jackman prods Kidman into exuding a little bit of chemistry, the cattle drive is exhilirating and the Australian outback is hugely photogenic. So, yes, whilst I can indeed see why people hated it, I strangely enough didn’t.