Lantana Film Review
A Complex Character Driven Story Rooted In Simplicity
When a detective begins to investigate the disappearance of a woman, it brings together four couples, who's lives suddenly intertwine.
Lantana deals with sadness, marriage, mystery, and infidelity. It is about none of those things specifically, but rather the choices that everyday people make, and the end results of those choices, whether that choice is to cheat on a spouse, or to take a ride from a stranger. In the randomness of life, four couples’ stories intertwine and twist, further complicating their existences.
Character Driven
Detecive Leon Zat (Anthony LaPaglia) is letting his life fall apart. He beats suspects, lashes out at strangers, and salsa dances with his wife in a trance like state. Leon is cheating on his wife Sonja (Kerry Armstrong) with Jane (Rachael Blake) from their class. Jane is separated from Pete (Glenn Robbins) and in her loneliness would like more from Leon, snoops through her blinds at her happy next door neighbors Nik (Vince Colosimo) and Paula (Daniela Farinacci), and sort of, but not really comes onto Nik. Dr. Valerie Somers (Barbara Hershey) and her husband John (Geoffrey Rush) have never quite gotten over the loss of their daughter, who was murdered two years earlier. Valerie is treating a homosexual man Patrick (Peter Phelps) who is seeing a married man.
Coming Together
Jane is seeing Valerie about her marriage to Leon, whom she thinks is cheating on her. Valerie begins to suspect that Patrick’s married man may be her own husband. Paula gets possessive of Nick, and Pete misses Jane.
Then Valerie has a car accident one night on a back road. She walks and finds a pay phone. She tries to reach her husband without success. Then she sees headlights coming down the road, and disappears.
Jane, late at night, sees Nik come home drunk and seemingly upset. He grabs something from his truck, and throws it into a vacant lot across the street. When Jane investigates the next day and finds a shoe, amidst the backdrop of Valerie’s disappearance, she bgins to wonder…
Leon and his partner head up the investigation. In the course of this, Leon comes across the fact that Valerie is treating Jane. He believes that John, who offers no help in the matter and has no legitimate alibi, must be guilty. John says ambiguous things like how he waited to call the police because he figured she would come home, that he visits his daughter’s murder site often, without his wife even knowing. John says his marriage to Valerie has been kept afloat by grief. Then he admits to infidelity, when Leon denies his own.
Complex But…
This all sounds very complex and confusing, but in reality Lantana is one of the simplest stories you will ever see. The complexity comes from the depth of the characters, the strength of the script, and the investment that every single actor brings to their roles. With all the different elements this film brings to the table you might think it a police procedural, a Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct) type thriller, or any other number of genre types, but you’d be wrong. Lantana is best described very simply as a human story, about people, situations, and the (usually) wrong or questionable choices that they make. The ending is subtle, with some elements added that in a lesser film would be exploited as “twists”; but in Lantana, they are simply choices made by people, some who do nothing, some who forgive, some who remain in limbo, and some who will survive.
All character/actor names referenced via IMDB
