Lantana (2001)

"A rare Aussie treat" - a review by mino

By rights, Lantana is not the sort of movie that the Australian movie industry should be able to do well. Traditionally, successful Aussie fare is limited to light comedies like Crackerjack (2002), or meaning-laden message-pieces like Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002). Clever ‘character drama’ isn't normally something that we can ever quite get right, and that just serves to make Lantana a very enjoyable treat indeed.

Lantana is a little bit thriller, a little bit relationship saga, and a little bit plain old-fashioned detective story — and it succeeds admirably at all three. The story largely revolves around cynical detective Leon Zat (the always-good-value Anthony LaPaglia), who is slowly coming to terms with the fact that his marriage is beginning to disintegrate. Called upon to investigate the disappearance of a leading psychiatrist (Barbara Hershey), Zat finds himself in a very interesting position — not least because his wife is one of the psychiatrist's patients.

It's hard to explain the plot any further, but in a way, that's about all there is to know. Lantana is not, by any stretch of the imagination, driven by the main plot. In fact, the murder is almost incidental to everything else that goes on, merely the impetus for a fascinating study of relationships — how they work, and, just as importantly, how they don't.

Lantana is far from a gripping edge-of-the-seat thriller, so don't get the wrong idea. It's a lazy film, which takes things slowly and doesn't feel the need to rush. It's not the plot or the pace, or the direction (thought it is a lovely-looking film) which makes it, though: it's the wonderful characters.

The acting in Lantana is superb, better than I can remember seeing in an Australian movie in a long time. Geoffrey Rush puts in a great turn even for him (which is really saying something), LaPaglia drills it, and even the normally profoundly annoying Kerry Armstrong is perfect as his just-holding-it-together wife. The actors, though, can't take all the glory: they need to give due credit to Andrew Bovell for a truly outstanding script. Not only is everything tight as a drum — barely a line is wasted — but each and every character is absolutely fascinating. Lantana must have been an actor's dream, as each one is given a character almost perfectly crafted to fit them, it seems, and none of them set a foot wrong.

Australian cinema, while patchy, produces the occasional gem. Lantana is most definitely one of them.