Nearly a full sweep at the Australian version of the Oscars, Lantana does boast a beautiful cast and an emotional subject, but it is the delivery of the core roots of this film that quickly take Lantana's kneecaps out. This is a film about trust. Lantana builds its premise and focus around characters that are untrustworthy, that have no reason to be trusted, and finally asks us to forget what we "think we know" or have heard to discover a killer among them. We are given strangers. Strangers, like in Anderson's Magnolia, are twisted together haphazardly in hopes that their random stories will bring the film closure as well as evoke a conversation about trust around the office water-cooler. What transforms Lantana from classic noir film to another chatty film with a disappointing conclusion is the misdirection of the characters. Lantana boasts amazing acting, and it did just that. Lantana boasted a mystery that needed to be solved, and it did just that. Lantana boasted flawed characters which would evoke emotion, and it did just that. The issues begin as the film nears the center that these elements, while good on their own, do not allow for a strong enough overall film. The confusing circumstances that reach sporadically at the weak threads of this film are painful to watch, and will eventually transform an avid viewer into a dulled participant.
Where did Anthony LaPaglia come from? Sure, I had seen him in other films like Empire Records and The Salton Sea and the television series Without A Trace, but it wasn't until this film was I able to witness his true acting ability. After watching Lantana, I must admit, LaPaglia needs to get more work. While I didn't see him as the center of this film (that goes to Hershey's character), I did think that he out shined even the great Geoffrey Rush. He was intense and intimidating while powerfully giving us a very conflicted human character. Rush was my second favorite of the film, his toned performance gave me goosebumps as I questioned his motives and logic. Hershey was adequate. Her character provided very little (outside of the central plot) and required even less. Her chemistry was disjoined, while her delivery seemed unmotivated. The same could be said for most the other characters outside of Rush and LaPaglia. These two tremendous actors stapled the film, while the rest seemed to simply move the plot closer to the ending credits.
With such powerful acting, why didn't this movie succeed in my mind? For me, it was the flawed story. Director Ray Lawrence needed to define this film better. What was the overall message? Was it sympathy for our characters or was it an entire film about the power of trust? I could see both, but they were blurry. It was obvious that trust was the underlying moment in Lantana, but it was so blazingly pushed in your face that it became tedious quickly. I see the value of building distrust around your central characters only to demonstrate the power of trust overall, but in this film it just didn't work. Lawrence's pacing destroyed any chances of this being a strong theme. From the beginning we are pushed with this idea of trust in so many main directions such as Leon's adultery, the flirtatious neighbor, the openly gay affair, and the death of a child, that when it is provided to us in short verse, aka the son smoking weed and the wife's confused moment in the car, it just seemed overwhelming. I needed, alas wanted, a stronger story. I did not want to have to wait for nearly an hour for the plot-point to happen. Lawrence painfully made us wait, under developing characters that we fully understood early in the film, and focusing lengthily on minute details, forgetting the overall picture that this film could have accomplished.
Lantana had every element for success. The emotional characters, the Magnolia connection, a disturbing murder, a plant (actually a weed) that only waxed the surface of symbolism; these were all synonymous with success, but Lawrence could not put the puzzle pieces together with ease. It nearly drives you to the brink of madness when you realize that everything was in place, it was the mind behind the camera that could not control it. I wanted the story to work, the characters were engrossing enough, I just felt that overall the haphazard themes and overplayed obstacle of "trust" was just chaotic. There wasn't enough rhythm, there wasn't enough balance, and there wasn't enough honest connections to make Lantana worth a second viewing. One scene the immediately comes to mind was that when LaPaglia was running down his street and accidentally hits a random stranger. Later, we learn that person is not as random as we thought, but by that point our apathy towards the film is already in full swing. Director Ray Lawrence tried to mimic what Paul Thomas cornered in Magnolia, but the end result was like tasting boxed wine instead of vintage.
Grade: ** out of *****
Where did Anthony LaPaglia come from? Sure, I had seen him in other films like Empire Records and The Salton Sea and the television series Without A Trace, but it wasn't until this film was I able to witness his true acting ability. After watching Lantana, I must admit, LaPaglia needs to get more work. While I didn't see him as the center of this film (that goes to Hershey's character), I did think that he out shined even the great Geoffrey Rush. He was intense and intimidating while powerfully giving us a very conflicted human character. Rush was my second favorite of the film, his toned performance gave me goosebumps as I questioned his motives and logic. Hershey was adequate. Her character provided very little (outside of the central plot) and required even less. Her chemistry was disjoined, while her delivery seemed unmotivated. The same could be said for most the other characters outside of Rush and LaPaglia. These two tremendous actors stapled the film, while the rest seemed to simply move the plot closer to the ending credits.
With such powerful acting, why didn't this movie succeed in my mind? For me, it was the flawed story. Director Ray Lawrence needed to define this film better. What was the overall message? Was it sympathy for our characters or was it an entire film about the power of trust? I could see both, but they were blurry. It was obvious that trust was the underlying moment in Lantana, but it was so blazingly pushed in your face that it became tedious quickly. I see the value of building distrust around your central characters only to demonstrate the power of trust overall, but in this film it just didn't work. Lawrence's pacing destroyed any chances of this being a strong theme. From the beginning we are pushed with this idea of trust in so many main directions such as Leon's adultery, the flirtatious neighbor, the openly gay affair, and the death of a child, that when it is provided to us in short verse, aka the son smoking weed and the wife's confused moment in the car, it just seemed overwhelming. I needed, alas wanted, a stronger story. I did not want to have to wait for nearly an hour for the plot-point to happen. Lawrence painfully made us wait, under developing characters that we fully understood early in the film, and focusing lengthily on minute details, forgetting the overall picture that this film could have accomplished.
Lantana had every element for success. The emotional characters, the Magnolia connection, a disturbing murder, a plant (actually a weed) that only waxed the surface of symbolism; these were all synonymous with success, but Lawrence could not put the puzzle pieces together with ease. It nearly drives you to the brink of madness when you realize that everything was in place, it was the mind behind the camera that could not control it. I wanted the story to work, the characters were engrossing enough, I just felt that overall the haphazard themes and overplayed obstacle of "trust" was just chaotic. There wasn't enough rhythm, there wasn't enough balance, and there wasn't enough honest connections to make Lantana worth a second viewing. One scene the immediately comes to mind was that when LaPaglia was running down his street and accidentally hits a random stranger. Later, we learn that person is not as random as we thought, but by that point our apathy towards the film is already in full swing. Director Ray Lawrence tried to mimic what Paul Thomas cornered in Magnolia, but the end result was like tasting boxed wine instead of vintage.
Grade: ** out of *****