Esoteric, or have mixed reviews also been prevelant in Australia?

Wow, that was so intelligent, I thought you had the wrong message board for a moment.
Ha.
Well, I think you have to take some of the Australian culture into account when watching.

Take for instance, Sam Worthington's character. He has been made into the "typical" Australian male- no bad feelings, tough outer covering, hard worker. But as the film progresses you see that he is not meant to be that, that he is soft on the inside and that builds up to a final breakdown in the end. It's great to see that- alot of Australian males I guess can relate to that pressure to be that "Aussie" male, it's hard to express any true feelings.

So, yes, some of it may be Colloquial, but I think you really need to watch it yourself to make that opinion. In my eyes I don't think it is a typical "true-blue" Australian movie.

There is that complexity that not alot of Australian movies have, and it's a breath of fresh air in the Australian cinema.

I urge people to see this movie, it's fantastic!

It's hard to imagine that this film was well-recieved because of its australianess. It takes place in the snowy mountains which is not a significant cultural reference point at all, and it also seems to take place out of time, so that it's hard to say that the movie's doing this or that particularly in reference to Australia - it's located outside of space and time; it's surreal. The aesthetics of the film were discussed more in the press I believe than the story. It has a really sophisticated visual styling and an impressive soundtrack. The conversation in the press was alsways about the cinematography, the acting, the soundtrack, and the fact that the filmmaker is from Bondi. (There were also remarks about its sexiness, but never anythng sustained.) I think the sophistication in film-making was what was really impressive and also what allowed it to sweep the afis. (It was also an uninspired year for Australian films so there was not much competition.) But, the point is that it was impressive as hell for an australian film; and that judged against the entire world ouput, it necessarily loses some of its impressiveness. As far as I could tell, the critical voice in Australia was nigh-on univocal in the praise of this film.

It did recieve mixed reviews when it was released in Australia. Our Aussie movie industry has been flagging for several years now, and this movie was supposed to mean the 'revival' of the industry.
However it did no such thing. Despite the awards and the heavy publicity, the movie didn't do very well here commercially.
It cannot bank its success on "Australianism", because to me it's not your typical Australian movie. See The Castle for that.
I think the reason for its lack of success here was that it's rare to find an Australian movie that deals with such heavy issues, and as the protagonist is a 16 year old girl, I doubt that did much to enhance the popularity.
I think the reason it is getting mixed reviews overseas is that the American industry are used to us churning out Crocodile Dundee type movies, that rely on the Australian stereotype to sell tickets.

I remember when it came out I saw a lot of pretty good reviews (here in Australia). I'm sure there were some negative ones too though - although they mostly came a bit after the fact. The reason it did so well here is because there are only like 2 Australian films made every year and they're usually pretty bad so there's no competition for awards. It's funny because I thought it was all right when I watched it but looking back I think it's pretty awful. I see back in 2004 I gave it 7 but I am changing my vote now.

Except it hasn't had 'mixed' reviews as you put it. It was received quite well overseas, it has a rating of 81% on RottenTomatoes which collects reviews from all the prominent critics (mostly from the US and UK). Like all popular artsy/indie movies though, there was a backlash, but that does not reflect the critical reception it got (ie. extremely positive).

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i personally love this film, it's one of my favorites and i'm from the states, long island new york specifically. the first time i saw it i was 16, just watched it again for the first time, 18 now. i find this film really fascinating. i personally like visuals, good music, and character pieces. i'm okay with not a lot of dialogue and action of a movie makes up for it with characters with emotional depth, and i think these one's were full of it. i'm brought to tears at multiple points within the movie, every time i see it. i can understand where a lot of people wouldn't like it though..i think it's more for people with a lot of empathy and aesthetic appreciation, and maybe *beep* up people too..being the only characters that the audience have to relate to are joe..who isn't much, mostly it's just heidi. whom not many people can relate to i guess?

A lot of Aussie movies are thin on plot and big on things like cinematography, character development, quality of acting and all that stuff which doesn't align with your typical Hollywood blockbuster type of film. So I guess it depends what reviews you're talking about...