KEY POINTS:
If the massive hype surrounding Australia , the 165-minute epic of an aristocratic British woman finding love in the red dust of the Northern Territory, is to be realised, the movie must redefine and rejuvenate the nation's sense of identity and culture, reverse the decline in foreign and domestic tourism, and save the film industry.
So much faith does Australia (the country) hold in director Baz Lurhmann's talent, that it has invested A$40 million of taxpayers' money in a global campaign based around Australia (the movie) to launch new jumbo-loads of tourists streaming south.
No more Barry McKenzie, shrimps on the barbie or bikini babes bewailing "where the bloody hell are you" to couch potatoes in the northern hemisphere: instead, vast panoramas backdropping a rugged Hugh Jackman and Academy Award-winning co-star Nicole Kidman.
"Baz Lurhmann has produced a campaign which Tourism Australia believes can convince people to holiday in Australia," Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said, as the marketing body prepared to unleash its campaign in 22 countries.
Hopeful comparisons are being drawn with the spinoffs New Zealand got from The Lord of the Rings, and to some degree Kiwis could wish Australia well - long-haul travellers from the north often bundle the two countries together.
Now it is nail-biting time. How will the world respond to Lurhmann's call?
It is hard to judge at this early stage, but early tracking by one newspaper reported that the film is hardly on America's radar - for all its declared echoes of Gone With The Wind and shadows of Pearl Harbour from the bombing of Darwin.
Despite saturation coverage in Australia and endorsement from Oprah Winfrey , the Australian newspaper said studio executives confirmed the film had yet to register in audience tracking of the American market.
It said pre-release attention was at present focused on Twilight, a teenage vampire film, ahead of the Disney 3D film Bolt and a long list of Oscar contenders, including Milk, Frost/Nixon, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.
"The studio behind Lurhmann's film, Twentieth Century Fox, hopes an intense media campaign will ensure the A$180 million film isn't a Thanksgiving Day turkey on its November 28 launch before the studio releases a blockbuster likely to dominate US multiplexes, The Day The Earth Stood Still, two weeks later," the Australian said.
Like Australia's tourism and film industries, Rupert Murdoch's Fox has a lot riding on Australia the movie.
After a good run of hits, the studio bombed during the northern summer, with operating income falling more than 30 per cent during the September quarter. Fox is counting on Lurhmann, whose successes included Moulin Rouge and Romeo and Juliet.
On its side, the movie does have the star power of Jackman - this week voted the "sexiest man alive" by People magazine - and Kidman, although the actress has had her share of bad press.
British columnist Melanie Reid wrote in The Times that Lurhmann had made a big mistake in selecting "one of the most overrated actors in the world", and one who had been "the kiss of death in practically every movie she has starred in".
On the other hand, the film had the gushing support of Oprah Winfrey, whose influence over her worldwide television audience is legend. Winfrey gave an entire show over to the movie, and declared it would make everyone who saw it want to leap on a plane and head south. "I have not been this excited about a movie since I don't know when," she said.
Reviewers have mixed feelings.
Brisbane Courier-Mail's Des Partridge said the film was unlikely to surpass such other local classics as Gallipoli, but deserved to be seen, and the Adelaide Advertiser's Stan James said it was a movie that "looks as big as its title".
Fairfax critic Jim Schembri bemoaned its "narrative flab" and said that while not a bad film, Australia was far from a good one, and certainly not a classic. David Stratton wrote in the Australian: "It's not the masterpiece we were hoping for."
The Timesonline said the film appeared to be little more than a showcase for Australian stereotypes, although it showed a nation of the 1940s that was both compellingly beautiful and breathtakingly cruel.
And Hollywood Reporter online critic Megan Lehmann wrote: "Despite some cringe-making Harlequin Romance moments between Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, Australia defies all but the most cynical not to get carried away by the force of its grandiose imagery and storytelling."
Which is exactly what the nation's tourism industry is hoping for.
Even before the credit crisis, Tourism Australia was worrying about the rise of new destinations and low-cost carriers, and a strong dollar. In August, visitor arrivals were down 4 per cent on last year. By September it was 8 per cent.
As if saving the tourism industry is not enough, hopes are also high that Australia will rescue the nation's film industry which, despite A$2.5 billion in government handouts in the past decade, has not been doing well.
Over the past three decades, the share of box office takings held by local productions has more than halved, to about 4 per cent.
Though taxation rules have been revamped to provide new incentives, there is talk the nation's film-makers have gone off the rails. Screen Producers Association president Anthony Ginnane has slammed the industry for "dark, depressing, bleak pieces".
But few believe that Lurhmann and Australia can alone save the day.
"No single film can do that," Jim Schembri told ABC radio. "We need about four or five good years of good films, not just one good film around Christmas time."
Australia opens in cinemas on December 26.
