Word: jackman
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...reasons I accept but will never fully understand, hundreds of millions of people would rather be entertained by the Oscars than by this column. So I felt vindicated when I got an e-mail three weeks ago from John Palermo, the producing partner of this year's host, Hugh Jackman, saying he liked my work and wanted me to write for the Academy Awards. I wasn't exactly sure how the Academy expected me to craft an opening in which Jackman quickly segued into talking about me and my sophomoric sexual obsessions, but I was up for the challenge...
...joyful romp across the Outback with lots of humor and action, and plenty of minor characters. But when the droving team reaches Darwin and things take a more serious turn, whatever fun the movie once had quickly vanishes, and we suddenly get 40 minutes of Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman making out in the rain. Normally that wouldn’t be a bad thing, but the chemistry between Drover and Lady Ashley is bland and superficial. The tough guy/high-society girl romance is a contrived and overplayed one, and Jackman and Kidman aren’t stretching their acting skills...
...proud, aristocratic and essentially clueless woman (Nicole Kidman) inherits a failing cattle ranch in Australia's outback. She meets a roughneck drover (Hugh Jackman) with whom she falls into that mutual dislike which, in movies like Australia, is always True Love's necessary precursor. They begin sparking on the adventurous cattle drive that is required to save the old homestead from their rich and avaricious neighbors. She also inherits Nullah (Brandon Walters), an adorable child of mixed white and aboriginal blood, who needs her love but also needs the mystical wisdom of his grandfather (David Gulpilil), a sort of shaman...
...recommend the latter course. I love Kidman's spunk and educability. I utterly agree that Jackman is, as People crowned him last week, the "sexiest man alive." Above all, I like the good-natured, hell-for-leather energy of the movie, the sense it imparts that no matter how much its silent-picture villains twirl their mustaches, its good folks, the people who represent the generous spirit of Australia, are going to win out in the end. Somebody is surely going to say that they don't make 'em like this anymore, so let me be one of the first...
...Thanks to Hollywood's 2007-08 work stoppages, next summer so far looks light on blockbusters. J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and sequels to Harry Potter, Transformers and The Da Vinci Code will bring built-in audiences. Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen's follow-up to Borat, may pique some interest, as should Pixar's Up. Still missing from the slate is anything to capture that female-over-40 Mamma Mia! spirit. Madonna, perhaps now's the time to pitch your jukebox musical...