At the Movies

'Slumdog Millionaire' spins riveting tale from slums of Mumbai

 Director Danny Boyle vividly captures angst, energy of modern-day India

 Jamal, left, played by Dev Patel, contemplates his answer on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" under the gaze of the game-show host, played by Anil Kapoor, in a climactic scene from "Slumdog Millionaire."

Film review by Anne Kirby

If asked on a quiz show to come up with the answer to the question, "Name a film whose name sounds like a Detroit rap band, came out of nowhere, is realizing a smashing box office success and won four Golden Globe awards," you would undoubtedly get the correct answer.

"Slumdog Millionaire."

Director Danny Boyle is not afraid to journey beyond the edges of society to explore the darker elements of human survival and spirit that exist outside the mainstream. He is also known to spare no emotion as he presents the less appealing and grimmer details of life.

"Slumdog Millionaire" is director Danny Boyle's latest and perhaps greatest visual creation that it is creeping into the minds and hearts of audiences around the world at a shocking rate. It is especially appealing to Americans who view the film with the same kind of intensity.

If you know anything about "Trainspotting," an earlier film made by Boyle, you know that he is not afraid to journey beyond the edges of society to explore the darker elements of human survival and spirit that exist outside the mainstream. He is also known to spare no emotion as he presents the less appealing and grimmer details of life.

"Slumdog Millionaire" is a refreshingly different and uplifting picture. Shot in its actual setting of Mumbai, India, the setting realistically portrays present-day India as a mixture of colorful, teeming slums existing within the brighter silvery colors of the growing number of high-rise buildings popping up through urban landscape.

With names like Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan and Freida Pinto, the Indian actors who compose the little-known cast speak perfect English. Their acting reveals a natural freshness that resonates with the spontaneity of a high-spirited octane that explodes onto the screen through a fusion of negative and positive ionic energies that create sheer entertainment and stunning performances.

Police torture the hero, who is suspected of cheating

The film opens ominously with a close-up picturing a heated stream of breath emanating from the mouth of a hard-nosed police interrogator.

Spewing harsh words and taunting insults, he torments his victim - a clean-cut 18-year-old male named Jamal, played by Patel - who is accused of cheating.

Jamal, it turns out, is scant hours away from answering the final quiz show question that could make him India's newest "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" hero.

But first he must duck the trumped-up charges laid against him by the slick quiz show host, played by Kapoor, who refuses to believe that an uneducated street child could possibly come up with the answers to the quiz show questions on his own.

Jamal, weakened by electrical shocks, wittingly maintains his composure as he tenaciously defends his story that he acquired his answers coincidentally through experience that he and his older brother Salim gained while growing up and out of the Mumbai slums.

With slight affectations and subtle hints suggesting he is not wholly in the game for the money, Jamal secures his release in the nick of time to answer the final quiz show question.

Leaving the final quiz show question unanswered is Boyle's brilliant way of bringing the audience into grips with the excitement, anxiety and tension that surrounds Jamal's climactic moment as a finalist on quiz show television.

But the bulk of the film's emotion arises as Jamal plumbs his past through a series of flashbacks. Triggered by each of the 10 quiz show questions, his flashbacks vividly describe the riveting and bizarre events recreating the rags-to-riches story of Jamal and and his older brother, Salim, played as an adult by Madhur Mittal.

Throughout the film, Boyle personifies India as a strong and emerging power player in a high-stakes international game of capitalism. His focal point, however, is the darker underbelly of India, which is rife with gangsters, opportunists and upwardly mobile Indians who seek security yet face uncertainty.

Brothers are miniature versions of James Bond

This is the world into which Jamal and Kamal are catapulted as young boys after they witness the brutal killing of their mother through the hands of vicious anti-Muslims. Their lives are dramatically sent hurtling in another direction.

Left to fend for themselves, the boys prove to be capable survivors. Like smaller versions of James Bond, they beg, borrow and steer their way through towering odds and circumstances that provide them with the knowledge of how, when and what to say to get what they need.

Over time, this schooling works.

With instincts of steel, Salim discovers that he and his brother are victims of a set-up run by a cunning and evil thug who positions himself like Fagan from Charles Dickens lore.

Salim witnesses a pouring of acid onto the faces of other less suspecting children, and learns that the acid is followed by an even worse act in which the children's eyes are plucked out with spoons.

Realizing the men's plan - that blind little beggars make more money - Kamal quickly rounds up his brother and Lakita, an orphan girl with whom Jamal is deeply in love.

As the three escape the men's camp, they outrun the thugs who follow closely behind. But while jumping onto a moving train, Lakita for no apparent reason drops Jamal's helping hand and falls back into the hands of the thugs.

Jamal cannot emotionally let go of Lakita, and he grows innocent through his love of her, obsessively searching to find her. Salim, however, evolves in an opposite and unemotional direction. Through his role as Jamal's protector, Salim begins trading on his slumdog survival experiences. He reaches the harsh realization that the only way he can survive, and live freely, is through the trigger of a gun.

As he rises up through thug-infested real estate deals, Salim acquires money and power.

Ironically, he also acquires Lakita. Previously rescued by Jamal, she sacrifices his love to obtain a better lot in life, perhaps fearing the odds of her survival.

Through the two differing paths that Kamal and Jamal take, we glimpse Lakita through cracks in the film that reveal her position in the middle of the road. While she flounders from man to man unable to get a grip on her life, Jamal's final appearance brings her as well as Salim back together again.

The juxtaposition of the three main characters builds tension and fuels the film's climax with emotional intensity. Their lives, once again woven together like a strand of DNA, brings about the film's shocking ending, where the destinies of all three untwine as Jamal breaks through his flashbacks into the present to discover his destiny.

 Jamal, played by Patel, and Lakika, played as an adult by Freida Pinto, share a tender moment in "Slumdog Millionaire."

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Review: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Director David Fincher tells tale of man who ages in reverse

Brad Pitt, above, depicts Benjamin Button early in his curious life.

By Anne Kirby
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is an unusually engaging film that tells the captivating, stranger-than-life story of the fictional Benjamin Button.

The film depicts the peculiarities of Benjamin's life as he ages backward from old age, into middle age, adolescence, youth and infancy.

According to Benjamin this turn of events is attributed to the fact that he was "born under unusual circumstances."

The film's story begins with Benjamin Button's birth on Armistice Day in 1918, the day on which World War I ended.

When he arrives in this world, Benjamin looks every bit like a seasoned senior citizen in an infantile body. The doctors diagnose Benjamin with an odd aging disease that they believes will be quickly fatal.

Thanks to the expansive and imaginative vision of the film's director, David Fincher, who has a penchant for manufacturing beauty in his films, "The Curious Life of Benjamin Button" does not dwell on the gorier aspects of Benjamin's odd appearance the way that author F. Scott Fitzgerald did in the original story that was adapted by Fincher

Instead, when we first meet Benjamin Button (played mostly by Brad Pitt, right) lying in a blanket on the doorstep of the home where he his impulsive and wealthy button-making father abandoned him, Fincher handles Benjamin's physical appearance deftly.

To his and the film's credit, Fincher honors Benjamin's humanity. With pleasing sensorial treatment, Fincher reveals Benjamin's face as no more frightening than a large grapefruit with two eyes, a nose, and mouth. Ensconced within folded layers of white skin, they sensuously resemble a range of small and rolling mountains.

Again Benjamin's appearance is reinforced when Queenie, Benjamin's adoptive and adoring, black mother, discovers him. Looking sympathetically at Benjamin, she views him with a loving light and expresses her sorrow solely on the grounds that Benjamin was born a white child! The film is filled with backward metaphors like this one that are subtle and telling.

Benjamin's backward life literally unfolds on screen through Fincher's expertise.   Like an old film that's gone through a digital face lift, the earlier scenes of Benjamin are sensorial and full of color that is ever so slightly blurred to portray a pre-World War II New Orleans that bustles with electric street cars, old-fashioned telephone poles, and men who wear fedora hats as they stroll the wide avenues that are graced with large wooden-shingle homes such as the one where Benjamin was reared.

Benjamin Button is not dying, but growing younger

As Ben ages, the film's colors become clearer as does Benjamin who discovers that he is not dying. He instead grows  younger and younger through the same unstoppable time that traps all other mortals who age and conversely become older. Such a paradoxical presentation of aging fills the film with the unexpected and uplifting  scent of flowers that grow and blossom like Benjamin who sheds his wilted body to become younger.

Growing up, Ben is confined and protected from the outside world by his mother, and together they live in the retirement home where she works. Ben is dearly loved by Queenie, who accepts his predicament without judgement. The older, less-than-retiring residents view him as one of themselves and they are stimulated by his youthful innocence and curiosity.  They too nurture Benjamin sharing their experiences, talents and most importantly their love.

At night, Ben is read the Rudyard Kipling Just So Stories by an older lady, who delights in revealing Kipling's  jungle animals personified with human characteristics. Another resident teaches Ben to play the piano, dance and appreciate music.

And throughout the film, laughter explodes from the audience with Kincher's comical tintertype inserts depicting "Chaplinesque" pictures of an older man in the process of being struck by lightning.

Each picture presents a differing scenario that represents the  confusion of the older man who typically responds to inquiries about his health with the repetitive statement ‘Did I ever tell you that I was struck by lightning seven times in my lifetime?'  He then goes on to present a different strory which mirrors his aging memory.

Despite title, a film for adults
The title of the film is alluring in that it sounds very much like a children's film. Surprisingly it is not. In fact the film's director, David Fincher, adapted it from the short story - of the same name - that was written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald in the early 1920s. The story was later anthologized within a collection of Fitzgerald's other short stories. All were intended to be read by an adult audience.
There are no magical kingdoms or fantastical characters in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - no Mad Hatter, Tin Man nor Wizard of Oz. Not even a vampire. But there is Benjamin Button and the disturbing circumstances under which he was born that ripened and shaped Benjamin Button into one plum of a character.

This is quintessential child's play. Through elderly mimicry Kincher adds humorous touches that serve as mild hints  about Benjamin's life.  In so doing he makes the story funny and the film pleasing to watch.

In time Ben meets a beautiful young girl named Daisy. The two take to each other and immediately become close friends. Daisy's stern grandmother who lives in the old white house looks unfavorably upon the relationship between her young granddaughter and the older Benjamin. She spares no time in telling Benjamin that he should be ashamed for playing like a child under neath the hand-made table tent he and Daisy created together.

Daisy, however, perceptively sees beyond  the veneer of Benjamin's age.

Over time, her dedication pays off as Benjamin blooms into the glowing prince of a figure played elegantly by Brad Pitt. Daisy, too, grows up into the lovely ballerina and woman who is  played by the beautiful and very talented Cate Blanchett.

The two never lose touch with one another.  Through a sort of cross-pollination of aging they simultaneously reach the same place in life generationally. Together they fall madly in love and romantically they have a child.

This part of the 2-hour, 40-minute film is as crucial as it is mysterious.  Bringing  an emotional complexity to the film, it reflcts the director's brilliance and talent as he presents and defines the plot's rising action in a manner that keeps us on edge, wondering what will happen next.

But there's more. The film begins and ends with an older woman named Daisy. While lying in a hospital bed, dying as Hurricane Katrina picks up outside her New Orleans window,  Daisy asks her daughter, Caroline to read to her.  She directs Caroline to the diary of Benjamin Button that is packed tightly within her suitcase of pictures and erstwhile momentos.

As Caroline begins reading she becomes the narrator of the film through the memoirs of Benjamin Button. The story is revealed through her as she goes backwards in time to discover something about her own life -- so unbeleivable -- she would never have suspected it on her own.

The message behind Benjamin Button is presented like the genie in the bottle. One rubs hard beneath the film's surface to discover it.

Somewhat like the character of E.T., Benjamin Button reminds us that it does not matter how you look or whether or not you are born lucky.

What does matter is that you are loved and accepted. As in the stroy of Benjamin Button, this is what creates a curious and substantial  life and one that is truly lived from the inside out.

Benjamin Button, played by Brad Pitt, makes love to Daisy, played by Cate Blanchett, at a moment where their ages coincide.

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'Milk' explores life and times of gay activist Harvey Milk

 Sean Penn shines in vivid role

 Harvey Milk, as played by Sean Penn, celebrates with gay friends in director Gus Van Sant's "Milk."

By Anne Kirby

Some of us undoubtedly still remember the 1970s.

But whether you do or don't, you might want to explore director Gus Van Sant's new film, "Milk."

In the film, Van Sant revisits the '70s through the uplifting story about California gay activist Harvey Milk, who had the distinction of being America's first "openly gay man elected to public office."

Josh Brolin, as Dan White, and Sean Penn, as Harvey Milk, argue inside City Hall in "Milk."

In the beginning, Harvey Milk, played by Sean Penn, was just another ordinary man who worked in the insurance business and wore a three-piece suit. He was also a single gay man with fewer inhibitions than others,  making him a role model for the large population of gay men who surfaced in the early 1970s united through their  their quest  to live a gay identity openly in America.

Once Milk discovers that corporate America is not for him, he abanadons the suit and moves into San Francisco's Castro neighborhood, soon to be a gay enclave, with his gay boyfriend and lover.

Played by the actor James Franco, Milk's significant other brings authenticity and support to the relationship. Milk dresses down in jeans, grows his hair, and opens a camera shop.

Most significant is Milk's show of support for other struggling gay men which he handles with the talent of a professional therapist.

Interaction is the singular skill that defines Milk's development and shapes his evolving character. Straight or gay, he dignifies the people he meets with an outgoing and engaging sincerity reinforced by consideration and his overt kindness.

It is no coincidence that Harvey Milk rose up through the ranks of Castro's largely homosexual population to find his political voice as an organizer, spokesperson and leader of the first gay rights movement which grew out of San Francisco's burgeoning gay communities.

It is no coincidence that Milk rises up through the ranks of Castro's largely homosexual population to find his voice as a political organizer, spokesperson and leader of America's first gay rights movement which grew out of San Francisco's burgeoning gay communities.

When times got politically rough, an angry gay community spilled out onto the streets of Castro to protest injustices, blatant hate crimes and the murders that hung like a shadow over th eheads of gay men and women.

Harvey Milk - the leader - capabably redirected this anger into political marches that gained momentum and media attention throughout the country. He also recruited an inner circle of gay men and women that defined his leadership and gave political shape to the American gay movement.

Within time, Milk once again adorned a business suit. This time around, he wore it to represent the Castro district as a city supervisor for the city of San Francisco.

In his new role, Milk faces an uphill battle against a hard-driven, conservative political machinery that he accurately criticizes in terms of its likeness to other machines that becoe dirty without regular oil and grease changes.

Milk saw politics as something more than hardened party loyalties. He saw it as a tool for change and a response to the evolving  American culture.  Espousing this made Milk's position difficult but it also proved to make Milk a tougher. more effective representative and politician.

Josh Brolin's astonishing portrayal of Dan White is a key ingredient to the film's plot and Milk's story. White is a relentless force with a smoldering dark side.

Enter Dan White, Milk's political rival and nemesis - as well as the man who pleaded the "twinkie defense" to get off of his own gay hate crime.

Played by Josh Brolin with astonishing insight and skill, his portrayal of Dan White is a key ingredient to the film's plot and to the story of Harvy Milk. White is a relentless force with a smoldering dark side and as a city politician Milk must daily reckon with him.

As the two struggle personally, through opposing views and political differences, the momentum this sets up creates a tension that propels the film forward with jet-like force. White begins to view Milk as an unfair team player on a political chessboard that functions through back-scratching alliances. Eventually White develops a Nixon-like cast of confused depression.

While Milk continues to lobby for gay rights, he runs through walls of political betrayal, bigotry and propaganda smear tactics winning a victory against the Proposition 6 state ballot question, authored by the radical right.

Threatening to deny gay men and women employment as public school teachers, the ballot question prompts an issue that is large and politically complex. Milk takes solace through his love of listening to Puccini's Opera, and remains focused and calm.

Meanwhile, Dan White becomes increasingly jealous as he realizes that his political personage is weakened in light of Milk's success and popularity as a politician and gay rights shaman. His obsession brings about his and Milk's demise.

Penn is at his all time best in this film.  Without a doubt he will be nominated for the  Oscar as best male actor as will be the case for Josh Brolin with a nomination as  best supporting actor. "Milk," the film, is also Oscar-worthy and for the following reasons.

"Milk" is an incredible story with an entertaining and jarring view of internal city politics. It's also a biography that shows the human side of the man who brought about a new "us' in America by providing leadership and hope as he opened the doors that once kept gay men in the closet.

"Milk" is great American film with content that is paradoxically as sensitive as it is tough. It also has a historical relevance, making it a brilliant documentary as well.

Handling a film of such proportion takes talent and skilled directing. Director Van Sant definitely proves both as he finessed all parts of the film into a tight package stunningly creating a story backed with authenticity.

He did this intermixing original 1970s film footage and newspaper excerpts while having Sean Penn narrate the story's truth, using Harvey Milk's own diary that he intuitively dictated shortly before his death.

This hint of Milk's untimely death pervades the film and towers into the compelling lesson that tolerance doesn't always come about easily and without a price in this country.

2008 may be the year that "Milk" supercedes the "got milk" ads for its popularity and best picture of the year award at the Academy Awards. 

 Gay activists unfurl their flag at San Francisco's City Hall in "Milk."

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German military plot to kill Hitler is subject of 'Valkyrie"

Tom Cruise depicts heroic Colonel von Stauffenberg

Tom Cruise plays Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, who masterminds a plan to assassinate Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, in "Valkyrie."

Director Bryan Singer avoids making the typical Third Reich film
By Anne Kirby

Valkyrie" is a mythical term that makes reference to the handmaidens of God whose gift in life was to choose who would live and who would die.

"Valkyrie" also is the name that Germany's leader in World War II, Adolf Hitler, chose for his military succession plan should anything happen to him and his government.

The film "Valkyrie" is not the typical Third Reich movie that we Americans have grown accustomed to viewing.

What makes "Valkyrie" different is that it does not depict Germans soldiers speaking in the usual regimental and sharply clipped, Germanic tones and accents that have conditioned us to view all German soldiers as Nazi criminals.

Instead, director Bryan Singer presents his German characters - many of whom are played by British actors - as Anglophiles who speak American English with ease.

The effect is like a palette cleanser that prepares one's senses for something altogether new.

Without the terse and tautly spoken German, we become relaxed and better positioned to receive the message that lies behind Singer's "Valkyrie."

Able to delve deeper, we break through the surface tension of 1944 Nazi Germany, and come up with another picture of Hitler's Germany that surprises and releases us from the preconceived thinking that all Germans supported Hitler.

The real story in "Valkyrie" is the revelation that not all German soldiers were sympathetic to Hitler's supremacist views. In fact, many of them hated what Hitler was doing to Germany and its civilians.

"Valkyrie" is the story behind the story that presents the other side of Hitler's military - the human side.

Central to Valkyrie's plot is the character of Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, who actually lived and whose portrait is shown above. Played by Tom Cruise, von Stauffenberg is brought to life through the actor's dramatic portrayal of the Prussian officer, who came from a respectable family and rose up through the ranks to become a master player in the Valkyrian plot to assassinate Hitler.

While lying wounded in a North African desert - after being shot up in a British air attack - von Stauffenberg's unconscious mind presents him with a vision.

In the film's opening scenes, we witness Colonel von Stauffenberg as a young, highly skilled  and ambitious Prussian soldier fighting for the Germans in Tunisia.

While lying wounded in a North African desert - after being shot up in a British air attack - von Stauffenberg's unconscious mind presents him with a vision.

Images depicting overzealous Hitler followers and Nazi loyalists combine with the image of Christ hanging from the Cross. Like the biblical story of the soldier Saul whose life was transformed while in service to the Roman government, Stauffenberg's vision is a life-changing force.

Awakening in a German hospital with only one hand, two fingers and one eye, Stauffenberg begins to see his role as a German colonel in a new light.

The meaning of his vision is clear. Von Stauffenberg realizes what the allied countries already know which is that Hitler's supremacist and anti-Semitic beliefs are an atrocity. He further discovers that these beliefs do not resonate with many of the German miltary and joins rank with them through his realization that Hitler must go.

Although partially blind, von Stauffenberg's conviction to assassinate Hitler is cemented in an assassination plot symbolically depicted as an artificial blue eye that becomes the colonel's conspiratorial trademark throughout the film.

At one point, the false eye turns up in a cut-glass crystal floating in the liquor being drunk by Major Gen. Henning von Tresckow (Kenneth Branagh.) Placed there by von Stauffenberg, it is the colonel's first attempt at galvanizing major military force behind the plot.
What all the German generals who support the plot have in common is their hatred of Hitler and their desire to save Germany from remaining synonymous with Hitler's Nazi regime.

Von Stauffenberg gains access into Hitler's inner sanctum by reworking Hitler's handcrafted succession plan, Valkyrie. Not knowing that the revised plan will be used during Stauffenberg's assassination attempt to overthrow his government, Hitler authorizes it with his own signature.

The film moves swiftly along toward its climax with twists and turns that reflect the complexities that von Stauffenberg and the others confront as the assassination plan develops momentum.

Eventually von Stauffenberg gains access to  Hitler, and his inner sanctum, by reworking Hitler's handcrafted succession plan, Valkyrie. Not knowing that the revised plan will be used during Stauffenberg's assassination attempt, to overthrow his government, Hitler authorizes it with his own signature.

Though presumably every filmgoer knows what became of the plot, one is not distracted but rather more intrigued by the film's humane, character sketch of Colonel von Stauffenberg the man: his ambitions, intelligence, his love of his family and perhaps even his overtly obsessive Prussian military mind that ironically could have saved the world and Germany from Hitler earlier on.

Although remembering all the characters' names is a bit confusing, "Valkyrie" is an excellent film.

The cast of "Valkyrie," a film set in the dark days of 1944 Nazi Germany.

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Epic 'Australia' depicts cultural clash of aborigines, British settlers

Movie offers sweeping cinematography, adventure

 Nicole Kidman, left, and Hugh Jackman play an unlikely pair in "Australia."

 Romance develops between rough-hewn drover, stiff English lady

 By Anne Kirby

Australia" - the film - chronicles the life and times of people who struggled to survive within the cultural conflcts ignited by the English colonization of Australia. Worst hit were the once nomadic Aborigenes who were all but exterminated as they were driven off their lands by  a British power elite that rivaled the American Mafia in greed and a territorial imperative reinforced through brutality and racism.

The meeting ground of this culture clash is embedded in the plight of the "creamy children." These children were the by-products, and unfortunate offspring, born out of the cross-cultural interbreeding between dominant whites and the lower caste aborigines. The "creamy children" symbolized the white domination that characterized the late 1930s and early 1940s in Australia, the period depicted in "Australia." These innocent victims were hunted down, rounded up and hidden away from the public eye, in Catholic missions, as if they had never existed.

Tale of the 'Stolen Generations'

The "Stolen Generations" of mixed-breed children form the focal point of director Baz Luhrmann's "Australia." As with all epic films, "Australia" delineates the triumph of good over evil in a heroic human drama that characterizes the monumental tasks of the few who face evil head on, without fear.

"Australia" is a huge production that includes a musical score that is classically elegant and upbeat with a closing song sung by Elton John. The cinematography is artistic with an opening scene - full of action - that is shot through the lens of a watery pond in the style of an impressionist painting.

Drover and Lady Ashley find each other.

It also boasts a cast of bankable actors. Hugh Jackman plays the "rugged outback guy" to Nicole Kidman's "aristocratic English lady," Lady Sarah Ashley.

Take away the costuming and you have Channel Lady meets the Marlboro Man.

Kidman, however, has the brass, beauty, brains and sleek body to carry off the part of an upper-class "boss-woman" who becomes a tough, outback rancher on her own accord. Her determination and experience as an actress is in no way eclipsed by the rising star of younger hunk Hugh Jackman.

Jackman plays the rough-and-tumble, hardened Aussie called "Drover,"  the nickname he earned as a rugged cattle driver.  He is a galvanizing figure in the film.  Although at times he veers off course - appearing emotionally lost in his role - his ability to play a tough guy, and simultaneously morph into Cary Grant in a tuxedo, bodes well for his promising career.

An unlikely couple

This unlikely couple come together when Lady Sarah Ashley arrives - fresh off her English estate - in the hot and dusty port of Darwin.

Checking on the rumors about her husband's infidelity, she creates a stir when her Louis Vuitton-like luggage gets tossed about by a couple of drunken Aussies having fun. As her elegant, silk lingerie floats freely across the screen, Drover meets her eyes and forebodingly says, "Welcome to Australia."

All eyes - good and bad - are on this striking English woman who arrives with aristocratic flair. 
Once Ashley reaches her husband's sprawling ranch named Faraway Downs - symbolic as it expresses the mood of the place  - she discovers the body of her dead husband laid out in the front parlor. The ranch is in utter disarray.

Her move also brings her and Drover together in a relationship of convenience, which through struggle, deepens into lust and then love as the two come to grips with their own, unresloved emotions lying behind their uptight facades of pride and toughness.

As Ashley confronts her murdered husband's death, she discovers a deceptive plot schemed up by, Carney, who is an evil and powerful cattle broker played by Bryan Brown. Carney and Lord Ashley's operations ranch manger, Fletcher (played by David Wehan) have been surreptiously stealing her husband's cattle in an attempt to take down Lord Ashley down with him his ranch, the one large remaining tract in Northern Australia not yet controlled by Carney.

Lady Ashley  is not to be deceived. Once aware of Carney's plan, she convinces the unwilling "Drover" - tempting him with a coveted breeding horse - into managing the ranch's operations.
In this one decisive moment, Ashley sets into motion an epic struggle that places her at the midst of Australia's culture clash.

Her move also brings her closer to Drover in a relationship of convenience, which through struggle, deepens into lust and then love as the two come grips with their own, unresloved emotions lying behind their uptight facades of pride and toughness.

On the advice of Nullah (Brandon Walter),  a beautiful and highly spirited "creamy" boy who attracts Ashley's maternal instincts after his own mother dies attempting to save her boy from forced removal to the Catholic missions, Ashley agrees to drive the "big bully cattle" to a "big metal boat" that will transport the cattle to market, save the ranch and beat Carney at his own game.

Heading for Nullah's 'big metal boat'

Together Lady Ashley, Drover and Nullah set out against all odds, looking very much like a happy family. Wth a 2,000- strong herd of cattle, they begin crossing the rugged northern terrrain that leads to Nullah's metal boat.

Nullah is filled with a deep, spiritual, aboriginal respect for life and nature that places him in stark contrast to the darkness that pervades Carney and Fletcher. Walter's performance is riveting and magical as he grows into a wizened soothsayer.   Led by his grandfather - an aboriginal spiritual leader named King George (David Gulpilil) - Nullah receives his spiritual messages that are sung to him from his grandfather's perch atop high mountains.

With King George in the background, Nullah refines his aboriginal inheritance singing to Drover, Ashley, the cattle and a small group of ranch hands the guidance that leads them through the treacherous terrain of mountains and wide open land tracts with cliffs that appear out of nowhere.

Director Baz Luhrmann also shows the struggle that Drover, Ashley and Nullah face as they race against time, besieged by Carney's people who succeed in forcing the cattle party into a detour that leads them across a desert whose heat spells imminent death.

Baz Luhrmann's panoramic and sweeping aerial views of this territory are magnificent. Picturing an unforgiving, ruggedly rocky terrain, Luhrmann captures the magic of starlit nights amidst ruddy, orange and golden brown mountainsides and wide mesas  that display the vast grandeur of Australia. He also shows the struggle that Drover, Ashley and Nullah face as they race against time, besieged by Carney's people who succeed in forcing the cattle party into a detour leading them across the desert where heat spells imminent death.

With no evidence of the drivers who have coincidentally been reported as dead by local Darwin newspapers, Carney picks up the pen to sign the legal papers establishing his right to becoming the sole local seller of cattle to the British Army, seeking meat to feed the soldiers mustered to fight the Nazis.

At the smae moment, Ashley's cattle stampede into port. Nullah, Drover and Kidman appear and victoriously drive the cattle into the big metal ship.  Carney's plans are ruined. In his defeat, Lady Ashley learns how to let go of her pretentiousness.

As if this were not enough of an epic - one wonders if Luhrmann set out to top "Out Of Africa" - the movie continues on to another climax, the horrible Japanese bombings of Darwin.

This part is based on an actual event, but for the film it manages to define Nullah's destiny as an aborigine and Lady Ashley's and Drover's love for one another.

The segment is the extra hour that many who have seen the movie have been complaining about.

But sitting through this movie was a triumph in itself, and somehow the epic remains in my mind as a film well worth viewing.

 Jackman and Kidman on the set of "Australia."

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