“Australia” bears filmmaker Baz Luhrmann’s idiosyncratic mark throughout its broadness, as the film is exciting, provoking and maddening at the same time while it tries to enter a long-forgotten world of cruelty and prejudice, softened by the piercing depth of romance.

The movie aims high through its epic drama entitlement, since it portrays a delicate period in the continent’s history and brings into play western-like elements from time to time, in an attempt to describe the harsh realities of life, bigotry and (why not?) love.

Moving from devastating war casualties to political and social conflicts, “Australia” mainly focuses on the relationship between a rigid English blue-blooded lady (the wonderful Nicole Kidman) and a rugged, sometimes crude cowboy going by the name of Drover (People’s sexiest man alive Hugh Jackman).

From its lavish music and sumptuous visuals to its romantically constructed archetypes of the two lead characters, “Australia” approaches a Hollywood classic from a departed era, thus highlighting conventional essentials uncovered in a ground-breaking way, in the midst of overwhelmingly callous times.

Narrated by Nullah (Brandon Walters), a mixed-race young boy, the plot is set on the verge of World War II in the Outback, which delivers its unsullied view and severely cold realities throughout the entire film, thus having a strong impact on the relationships between people and their perspectives on life.

Lady Sarah Ashley is a British aristocrat who travels all the way to Australia in search of her husband, whose prolonged Down Under visits leave her concerned. Therefore, she falls in dismay when she finds out that her spouse has been murdered. And although she is a true peer of the realm, the widow decides to stay at Faraway Downs, the property of her late husband, and take care of his unsolved issues.

However, Neil Fletcher (David Wenham) and a gluttonous businessman (Bryan Brown) who owns all the cattle in the Northern Territory except for Lady Sarah’s, make up a plan in order to steal her animals.

When she becomes aware of their scheme, Lady Sarah realizes that she can’t do anything but drive the 1,500 head of cattle to the port of Darwin and sell them to the military. As she can’t do this on her own, she asks Drover for help. In spite of the fact that they dislike each other at first, the Aussie Scarlett and Rhett fall in love and grow to be inseparable.

Overall, “Australia” represents an expansive canvas that generates a series of endless emotions, which, nevertheless, are too various so as to create a homogeneous product.

The risk of giving life to a very broad work is the broad work itself.