Sydney - Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman walk the red carpet Tuesday at the Sydney premiere of a film they made together in the red dust of the Outback. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, Australia has been praised by one critic as a love letter to the landscape that "has international blockbuster written all over it."
The 100-million-US-dollar extravaganza is set in World War II, with Kidman playing a pale-faced English aristocrat bowled over by Jackman's sun-kissed cattle drover.
It's the most expensive film ever made in Australia and carries the torch for a tourism industry shaken by bookings cancelled in the wake of the global financial crisis.
The 150-minute film was immediately proclaimed a triumph by newspapers owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose 20th Century Fox film studio stumped up the money. It was hailed as a "compelling and moving tale, which traverses war, race relations, class and the stolen generation."
Respondents to The Sun Herald, a rival newspaper that conducted an unscientific poll after the trailer was released, raved and railed in equal measures.
A reader called Claire said the backdrop of plunging stock markets would help gate receipts: "When times get tough, the tough buy popcorn and try to forget reality."
In contrast, a reader called Daniel was contemptuous of Luhrmann's first feature since the 2001 musical Moulin Rouge!
"Coming from an already overrated director, it has all the cliches of Australian films: overblown soundtrack, exaggerated accents from wooden actors, mystical blackfellas, heroes and villains lit loud and large, and lame cinematography replete with slow-motion footage of dust storms and horsies jumping logs."
The custodians of the struggling tourism industry are over the moon about what one described as the "longest tourism promotion video ever made."
A multimillion-dollar campaign, with television commercials playing in 26 countries, is piggy-backing on advance publicity for a film that showcases Australia's prime dramatic talent.
"This movie has the capacity to redefine the way Australians and the rest of the world see Australia as a destination, and it's up to all of us to capture that potential for the tourism industry," Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said.
Luhrmann drafted Jackman after Oscar-winner Russell Crowe wanted too much money to don cowboy duds and ride to Kidman's rescue.
"Kidman and Jackman are perfect together, Jackman's broad-speaking drover a perfect foil to Kidman's snooty English rose," a critic said.
Luhrmann has denied that pressure from Fox after disappointing test screenings obliged him to change the ending, letting Jackman's character survive rather than perish. The director insisted that he wrote six endings, shot three of them, screened two for test audiences and settled on the one with the happy ending without let or hindrance from Fox.
