Baz Luhrmann’s Australia won’t start screening until probably early the week of November 17, due to some characteristically last-minute tinkering by the filmmaker, but the poster has been out a while now, and it’s too vague a thing, conjuring up nebulous feelings of… I don’t know, a Down Under Pearl Harbor? Yes, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman are big-name draws, but they’re not romantic leads, never have been, and so the top-shelf lover’s clinch — while gorgeously hued — doesn’t grab a casual viewer. The backgrounded planes, wandering aboriginal kids, shotgun-toting ambler (Jackman in shadow) and setting sun, meanwhile, all come across as very W. Somerset Maugham. Which I don’t necessarily mean as a good thing, just from a commercial pitch point-of-view. After all, does anyone really remember The Painted Veil?
