Lantana (DVD)

--LANTANA-- Released in: 2001 and Directed by Ray Lawrence. Lantana is an Australian film which is based on the play 'Speaking In Tongues' by Andrew Bovell. Starring Barbara Hershey, Anthony LaPaglia, Rachael Blake, Kerry Armstrong, Manu Bennett, Melissa Martinez, Nicholas Cooper, and Marc Dwyer. - Genre: Drama/Mystery - Running Time: 121 Minutes - BBFC Rating: 15 - I was really looking forward to watching this film. The reviews that I had read, praised it and the story sounded quite gripping. So I was sure that I would enjoy it. How wrong could I have been?! I actually watched the movie a few days ago and so before this dreary film fades ...  Read the complete review

The film opens with the close up of what can barely be recognised as a foot caught in the thorny fingers of a lantana bush, whose flowers and thorns are carefully scrutinised before the camera slowly moves over the body of the woman who belongs to the foot. She is lying face down in its branches, her foot caught as if she is still falling - Australia's troublesome weed still holding her in its grasp. The film quickly cuts to a man and woman held together in another more vocal and frenetic embrace... Not exactly the typical opening that we have come to expect from Australian films. Think Australian film and Baz Lurhman's films tend to spring to mind - ...  Read the complete review

Lantana is a critically acclaimed Australian adult drama, but not in the way you might think. “Adult” has come to mean erotic. Why can’t a film just be a serious, mature story for adults? It tells the interlinked stories of a series of relationships, including a cop, Leon (played by Anthony LaPaglia), who is cheating on his wife (played by Kerry Armstrong); Kerry Armstrong’s therapist (Barbara Hershey) and her boring marriage to Geoffrey Rush; the woman Leon is sleeping with and the husband she is separated from (played by Glenn Robbins from Kath & Kim!); and the relationship between Glenn Robbins’s friend and his girlfriend, who incidentally live across ...  Read the complete review

... when first we practiced to deceive". That's the quote that comes to mind when I think about this movie. First of all, one should understand what Lantana is. Lantana is a leafy shrub with bunches of pink and yellow flowers, which was introduced to Australia as a ground cover, and soon became a "pest plant", with its rapid-spreading, thick, thorny and tangled growth. In the film, the metaphor of this plant is well used and we are brought back to it several times. So, what does this plant represent? First of all, the tangle of the plant is mirrored in the complex tangle of the lives of the characters. The lives of the characters ...  Read the complete review