Lantana film review

certificate_15

LANTANA

Opening credits running over murky footage of a dead body entwined in the shrub from which the film takes its title might seem like the beginning to a conventional thriller, but Lantana proves to be anything but. The film evolves into a taut drama concerned more with investigating the complexities of marriage than the mystery of the corpse. The domestic story, though methodical and understated, could sustain Lantana in isolation from the enigma that drives it, but with the added dimension it becomes a compelling work of depth and intrigue.

Set in a leafy suburb of Sydney, Lantana delves into the fissures of betrayal, suspicion and boredom that undermine the relationships of four couples whose lives become as entangled as the corpse. Directed with purposeful restraint by Ray Lawrence, with a screenplay by Andrew Bovell based on his stage play Speaking In Tongues, it's easy to see why the portrayal of the film's acute characters prompted the Australian Film Institute to bestow Lantana with its top acting awards.

Although essentially an ensemble piece, attention is devoted primarily to the dour cop Leon (Anthony LaPaglia) whose marriage to the love starved Sonja (Kerry Armstrong) has become the victim of his increasing mid-life frustration. For temporary solace he turns to Jane (Rachel Blake), who is in the throes of separation from her husband. Sonja, suspecting her husband's infidelity, secretly solicits advice from therapist Dr Valerie Somers (Barbara Hershey) whose own marriage to John (Geoffrey Rush) has disintegrated since the murder of their young daughter two years before.

When Valerie goes missing, Leon is assigned to the case with initial suspicion falling on a contemptuous John, but as Jane reveals new evidence involving her neighbour Nik (Vince Colosimo) the net is cast wider. The intrusion of Leon's personal life into his professional career is indicative of how the film continually and deftly shifts focus, with the investigation's lines of inquiry forcing all those involved to question their own lives as love and its accompanying pain reveal themselves to be the film's central theme.

Sombre in tone and look, Lantana harnesses its appeal from the passion of its characters who, either through neglect or design, have found their emotional lives in turmoil and are abruptly forced to confront their truths.