Australia

While watching Australia, my heart just broke. The film marks the return of a fun director, Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!) after a seven year absence, and it reunites him with Nicole Kidman. From the very start of this movie, it’s clear that the director and his team have kicked their own asses trying to come up with the ultimate Outback story. While it can be a great thing to watch a great director give his all to a project, sometimes such an act can result in overkill. It’s hard to watch a good director fail. Kidman and costar Hugh Jackman have great screen chemistry, but Luhrmann tries for too much and comes up with something decidedly strange and uneven. Parts of the film are beautiful, but just as many parts grate on the senses.