<< Back 7/3/02 Flicks By Hunter Pope Lantana Director: Ray Lawrence Written by Andrew Bovell, based on his play “Speaking in Tongues” Cast: Anthony LaPaglia, Kerry Armstrong, Geoffrey Rush, Barbara Hershey Rating: R—language, sexuality, and a disturbing scene of death Area Sightings: Video Stores “Lantana” won seven Australian Film Institute awards, including an unprecedented sweep of all four acting categories. Newlyweds beware! There’s a film out there, deftly disguised as a police thriller, which may contaminate your new life together. I, being of the recently intertwined, watched this tricky little film a couple of days before my marriage. Fortunately, my wife and I are of sound mind (she didn’t watch the movie) and our commitment to each other is for eternity (although I’m considering amnesia hypnotism for the movie). However, couples that even have a morsel of turmoil would best be advised to give “Lantana” a wide berth. Even a restraining order might not be a bad idea. “Lantana” deals with the story of an apparent murder and the four couples that are pulled into it. Distrust, infidelity, non-communication, phantom accusations, and unemployment crop up around our happy couples as they are coincidentally drawn into an unsolved death. At the center of this toilet bowl is a cop named Leon Zat (Anthony LaPaglia). Leon is one of those characters like the ill-fortuned Macbeth. Yes, he has some terrible things happen, but it’s impossible to sympathize with him. The only feeling that comes up is a heap of disgust. Usually, I’m drawn to the main character (even if their blemishes are plentiful), but I found myself scooting farther away from the TV anytime Leon came on the screen. As his life begins to crumble, I couldn’t help but mutter, “Good!” Leon is bad for all sorts of reasons. He’s cheating on his wife, Sonja (Kerry Armstrong) with Jane (Rachael Blake) a manipulative little minx that Leon met at a Salsa dance class (that Leon and his wife attend). Jane likes Leon, but his only words of comfort spew acid — “This isn’t an affair,” he tells Jane after their second soirée, “It’s a one-night stand that happened twice.” And that’s not all from the wonderful Leon. He beats a suspect for no reason, browbeats his son, and when he collides into a man while running, he almost kills the guy (although it’s his own fault for not looking). However, karma pops up on Leon faster than the damn spot that Lady Macbeth couldn’t get rid of. He has immense chest pains, and his secret relationship with Jane wears on him faster than generic brake pads. He’s miserable with her, and inconsolable without her. The meltdown has begun. Leon is at the center of this movie because he is sent to investigate a missing persons case. The missing is Valerie Somers, a psychiatrist who just so happens to have Leon’s wife Sonja as one of her clients. Valerie has also had her relationship woes. A few years previous her daughter had been mysteriously killed. The tragedy has created a communication rift between her and her husband John Knox (Geoffrey Rush). John is a stoic man, and his mute ways have led Valerie to believe that John is cheating on her. One of her clients (Peter Phelps) is a gay man who brags about his relationship with a married man. Valerie takes it as a taunt and believes that the married man is none other than her husband. The web gets thicker when Leon must go see a witness who saw her neighbor throw a woman’s shoe into the brush. When Leon arrives at the witness’s home, he discovers that it is none other than his concubine, Jane. Writhe, baby, writhe. It was at this point in the movie that I understood why it got its title. A lantana is a shrub that hides its monstrosity beneath its siren beauty. The top of the plant is full of lush beautiful flowers that will pilfer any breath. However, beneath its natural beauty is a mass of entangled thorns that would have made Briar Rabbit nervous. A lantana is much the way we see people in their surface relationships. Most couples hide any problem, fearful that any negative remark will bring a tidal wave of gossip. Most couples maintain the blissful gloss, even if the inside is rotted. However, when something traumatic like an unsolved death, murder, or vanishing occurs, the ugliness pops up like an unbridled zit. Sadly, it sometimes takes a disturbing event for the truth to unfold, and as “Lantana” reveals its innards, things get messy. Now most of you are probably scared to death now to watch this movie, and I’m sure the creators of this morbid little movie want me silenced. Yes, my summary of the movie is more confusing than a labyrinth in a blizzard, but I assure you that the movie is not. There are a lot of characters and coincidences to filter, but somehow director Ray Lawrence (who hasn’t done a movie since the critically acclaimed “Bliss”over fifteen years ago) manages to stitch everything together like a possessed seamstress. Most movies falter with too many subplots, but “Lantana” manages to engross despite the legion of tangents. It’s one of those rare movies that are able to turn melodrama into a lofty art form. The surprises are many, and the final solutions mirror our real life. No, it’s not a shiny happy movie, and there are never really any moments of immaculate hope. Its strong point is that it’s good cinema. The acting is impeccable and the storyline is so immersing that you forget you’re watching a movie. “Lantana” investigates those dark impulses that prowl on the weak-minded. It’s fascinating because deviant urges exist in all of us. Luckily, the guinea pigs for Lantana’s traps are merely actors. Couples should pay heed to this and remember that it’s just a movie. Besides, it’s full of these real pretty flowers...