Lantana

Rating:
Summary: unpredictable mystery with a Mike Leigh feel
Review: Despite the fact that the character intersections seemed a bit convenient, Lantana is really an interesting film. It mixes the slice-of-life characters usually found in a Mike Leigh film with a good mystery. Like a Leigh film, director Mike Lawrence doesn't care to make his leading character heroic, just human. While this is usually the death knell for a mediocre film, it works here because the overall story isn't melodramatic.

It's about a bunch of people with tangled lives that make and poor choices. It's also about the opportunity for redemption, which some characters get and some characters miss by the end of the film. A lot of why it works is because you're conditioned to think certain character will behave in certain ways, because movies are usually predictable. Here, their actions are don't follow any patterns like in real life. The cop isn't all that heroic. The psychologist can't answer her own problems. The cuckold is really a decent guy.

Anthony LaPaglia and Barbara Hershey are really good in this, and Geoffrey Rush, a favorite of mine, gives a nice simple and honest performance.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Character-Driven Piece of Filmmaking
Review: As 'Lantana' begins, we see through a long camera shot a dead body in the midst of thick shrubbery. We don't know who this person is or how the death happened. But we will learn this and much, much more.

Australian policeman Leon Zat (Anthony LaPaglia) is a man stumbling through life. He is in poor health, he is cheating on his wife Sonja (Kerry Armstrong), and can no longer relate to his sons and their problems. Sonja, having her own problems, seeks the help of a psychiatrist named Valerie (Barbara Hershey). Valerie has just written a book that chronicles the death of her young daughter. Valerie's husband John (Geoffrey Rush) is distant, but hiding an inner anger. At one point in the film, Valerie confronts him, telling him that he's not dealing with their daughter's death at all. He tells her that he is, he just doesn't have to write a book about it.

Zat's lover Jane (Racheal Blake) is a strange woman who is separated from her husband. She wants nothing to do with him. Living next door to Jane is the only happily married couple in the film, Nik and Paula. Or are they really happily married?

The characters and the situation I've described sounds like a bad soap opera. Far from it. Director Ray Lawrence takes all of these seemingly unrelated characters and shows us not only what they have in common, but how our lives can turn out if we're not careful.

It is surprising how easy the plot is to follow with all these characters. You're never sitting there watching the film thinking, "Now, who is this man?" Concentrate instead on what the characters are thinking and feeling. By doing this, you can tap into the depth of the characters and their sad and sometimes tragic lives. 'Lantana' is, if nothing else, a powerful look into the potential darkness that hides in each of us. But the film is much more.

'Lantana' is not as interested in solving the mystery of who was killed and why as it is in bringing the audience to understand what's going on in the heads of these amazingly lifelike characters. 'Lantana' is an amazing film. It's not a flashy film, but you'll think about it long after the final scene, which by the way is a microcosm of the entire film. Amazing stuff.

Running time 2 hours 1 minute

Rating:
Summary: Get Twisted Up Like A Pretzel
Review: A movie full of interesting plot twists. The beginning was a little slow but once the plot picks up there is a reward to be had in watching this film that dives deeply into the intimate lives of several characters. When a woman is murdered, these characters - who at one time had nothing to do with each other - find in time that they had more than they thought in common with one another.

Rating:
Summary: Superb drama, great script, fine acting
Review: "Lantana", one of the best independent films of last year and winner of numerous awards in its native Australia, is an adult movie in the positive sense of the term. On its surface, it's a murder mystery, but its real focus is on the relationships of several couples whose lives intersect in extraordinary and unexpected ways.

Leon [Anthony LaPaglia] is a career cop whose relationship his wife, Sonja [Kerry Armstrong], has reached an impasse. Bored and distracted, he begins an affair with Jane [Rachael Blake], who is separated from her husband. Her next door neighbors, in whom she has an almost unhealthy interest, are a young couple just stating out in life. Then there is John and Valerie [Geoffrey Rush and Barbara Hershey. He's a professor, and she's a therapist. Their happy marriage has been shattered recently by the death of their young daughter. A horrific event will occur that will test each of these couples. Not all will survive.

Lantana, by the way, is a lovely flowering plant which grows so aggressively in Australia that it has become a problem. Likewise, a relationship can start beautifully but later become overrun by need and emotion. The movie examines this phenomenon in an intelligent and heart-wrenching way.

Rating:
Summary: A surprising and compelling movie
Review: Lantana is a movie of relationship. The major characters in the movie are intertwined with each other by unexpected circumstances, but their relationships are enriching the whole plot in a way that you will have surprises that hang you on to the movie. It adopts a bit of American Beauty mood at the start, but when the film moves on, its own character and style comes out beautifully. The major characters are two cops, the wife of one of the cops, their kids, a guy looking for a job, his wife and his kids, a psychiatrist, her husband, a separated woman, her husband, and a gay patron of the psychiatrist. They all have their very unique characters and ways of handling things. Throughout the whole film, you can feel the emotions and turns of every single character. It is one of the best acted Australian film in the recent years. The mood is heavy but you will really care for how their relationships would evolve and develope at the end. The only discount to the movie is the last bit after the whole story ended, there is a dancing scene which was there for the soundtrack to be finished (or otherwise), which is a bit too much for the whole movie. Anyway, this doesn't not spoil the whole movie on the whole. Lantana is a big winner in the AFI Awards in Australia, the acting is spectacular and natural, if you want to look for real acting, this is the movie that you should go for.

Rating:
Summary: Great Australian Film
Review: Clearly one of the finest Australian works of late. 'Lantana' draws upon some of Australia's finest acting talent and creative prowess. A film which singles Australia out as the leading source of high quality actors for the American film industry. A hugely sucsessful film in Australia, 'Lantana' is actually the script for a play by Andrew Bovell - "Speaking in Tongues" which was revived by Playbox (a leading Australian theatre company) in 2003 at the C.U.B Malthouse in Melbourne.

Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Character Sketch
Review: Lantana sheds a specific plot in favor of entangled characters. Reminiscent of The Ice Storm and other such dramas exploring regret and poor decisions in life, the film does not uplift or even attempt to lie to the viewer. That is not to say that Lantana is not without morality; honesty maybe the film's most admirable quality.

Some may find Lantana uncomfortable and too attuned to the dregs of human relationships, but it's the constant reminder of the complexity of tragedy that keeps audiences aware of others' feelings and perspectives. As with The Ice Storm, the film allows characters to do what they will, for good or evil or something in between--the something that most people experience. In the depths of dark characters doing dark things, something good--even if it's only a lesson--must bloom.

Rating:
Summary: multi-layered and subtle masterpiece
Review: I very very rarely watch movies more than once. Usually, unlike books, there are no new aspects or layers to discover upon a second viewing.

"Lantana" , for me, is the exception that proves the above rule.

On the first viewing, I was interested to notice how the relationships and connections between the various characters played out. On the second viewing, I noticed how flawlessly this movie is constructed. On the third viewing, I was fascinated to see what the story has to say about trusting ourselves, and how such trust enables us to reach out and trust others, as well as the potentially destructive effects of grief.

Overall, this movie is one of my top recommendations of recent years.

Rating:
Summary: Emotional upheaval, passion and murder. Great film!
Review: This 2001 Australian film is about relationships and intersecting lives. Lantana is a plant with delicate leaves and sharp brambles which was transported into Australia and has now run wild. The screenwriting is making the same point as the passions and frustrations of the characters take over their personas.

A detective, played by Anthony LaPaglia, is having an affair. His wife is going to a psychiatrist, played by Barbara Hershey. This psychiatrist has suffered her own emotional upheaval. Two years before her 11-year-old daughter was murdered and now her husband, played by Geoffrey Rush, is emotionally distant. In spite of her training, she's judgmental about extramarital affairs and the subject of trust. Add to this mix a happily married couple with three small children who live next door to the woman the detective has romanced, a female cop who is full of good advice, and several other characters who are looking for emotional connection and we have an interesting plot about how paths cross and how we're all connected.

And then one of the women disappears and murder is suspected. Everything quickens up as the murder investigation touches on each one of these people's lives. There's emotional upheaval throughout and the conclusion is logical and satisfying. I was swept into the story as well as the emotions. At times it felt so real that it became painful. The acting was outstanding and so was the directing. And by the end of the film I felt I personally knew all of the characters with all their strengths and weaknesses. Excellent drama and definitely recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Not a perfect film, but one to check out
Review: Given my frustration with the vast amount of junk coming out of Hollywood, I recently have been seeking smaller films that don't wear the independent patch in navel-gazing exercises, but instead focus on characters as people rather than plot devices. AND PLEASE CAN WE HAVE A MOVIE WHERE THINGS DON'T EXPLODE EVERY FIVE MINUTES.

I saw this movie when it originally came out and it unfortunately was touted as the best thing since sliced bread. Tough to live up to, but hype aside it is a nice mystery where the characters are more important than who done it and in this case who was done in.

I won't reveal any details about this movie as some reviewers felt it necessary to tell you who was done in and although it's ultimately not as important as the characters in the movie, it does give a slowly moving film a needed punch as several clues and red herrings about several aspects of the story serve as enhacements.

The performances, with the exception of Barbara Hershey who is ok, are flawless. Even secondary roles are fleshed out and played by very strong actors. I may be somewhat unfair to single out Hershey as part of her role in the movie is to portray a profession that always seems like a cliche when seen on screen.

I liked this movie and in many ways reminded me of Robert Altman's pictures, where there are a plethora of characters that somehow have something to do with one another. The pacing is also Altmanesque and that will bother some viewers who want the movie to move faster than it does. Although I generally like the slow pace when the material warrants it, here I think that the movie could have done with a shorter running time by cutting some scenes which seem repetitive and maybe trimming a character or two.

Not big complaints here. I don't think that this is the greatest movie I've seen, but it is 100 times better than your good domestic release without the pretention that sometimes accompany said efforts. With the realms of what it is, I would highly recommend it over the wildly overrated "The Deep End", another similar genre movie that came out that same year.