Lantana (2001)

Psychiatrist Valerie Somers disappears one night; Det. Leon Zat is called to investigate; his wife has been getting advice from Somers.

Director:

Ray Lawrence

Writers:

Andrew Bovell (play), Andrew Bovell (screenplay)

Stars:

Anthony LaPaglia, Geoffrey Rush, Barbara Hershey

35 wins & 22 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Anthony LaPaglia	...	Detective Leon Zat
Geoffrey Rush	...	John Knox
Barbara Hershey	...	Dr. Valerie Somers
Kerry Armstrong	...	Sonja Zat
Rachael Blake	...	Jane O'May
Russell Dykstra	...	Michael
Daniela Farinacci	...	Paula D'Amato
Peter Phelps	...	Patrick Phelan
Leah Purcell	...	Detective Claudia Wiss
Glenn Robbins	...	Pete O'May
Manu Bennett	...	Steve Valdez (as Jon Bennett)
Melissa Martinez	...	Lisa
Owen McKenna	...	Old man in pyjamas
Nicholas Cooper	...	Sam Zat
Marc Dwyer	...	Dylan Zat

Storyline

Trust. A dead body in bracken. A cop cheats on his unhappy wife who, in secret, sees a psychiatrist whose own marriage is corroded by grief: she thinks her husband is having an affair with a gay patient of hers. The cop's lover, Jane, is recently separated, and her neighbors - a couple with children - include a muscular unemployed man. Late one night, the doctor skids off a back road, finds a call box, and tries in vain to reach her husband. She sees headlights and flags down the driver. Later that night, Jane sees her neighbor park his truck and throw something into the lantana in a vacant lot. It's a woman's shoe. Unraveling the mystery lays bare five couples.

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Plot Keywords:

psychiatrist | neighbor | secret | marriage | children | 

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Taglines:

Sometimes love isn't enough

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Lions Gate Films [United States]

Country:

Australia Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 October 2001 (Australia)

Also Known As:

A Floresta de Lantana

Filming Locations:

Balmain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£92,566 (UK) (16 August 2002)

Gross:

£499,549 (UK) (30 August 2002)

Company Credits

Production Co:

MBP (Germany), Jan Chapman Productions, Australian Film Finance Corporation (AFFC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first film to win all of the top six categories of the Australian Film Institute (AFI) awards: best picture, best director, best actress, best actor, best supporting actress, best supporting actor. It also won for best adapted screenplay. This record remained unbroken until all 13 AFI categories were swept by Somersault.

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Goofs

When Sonja is in the car park, at about 54' at the bottom of the frame you can see the dolly track complete with sandbag, wedges and Mafer clamp.

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Quotes

Leon Zat: [the morning after Leon admitted having an affair] I fucked up, all right? People fuck up.
Sonja Zat: Really? Well, I don't. You know what's so easy, Leon? It's so easy to go out and find somebody. You know what's hard? What's hard is not to.

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Crazy Credits

Grateful acknowledgement of assistance to all our families

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Connections

Featured in At the Movies: 25 Years of Margaret & David (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Opening"
(1999)
Written by Lazaro Valdes
Ahi-Nama Music - Musica Unica Publishing
Licensed from Universal Music Publishing Pty. Ltd.
Performed by Bamboleo
Courtesy of Ahi-Nama Music

User Reviews

A valuable, sensitive and brilliant Australian thriller.

What struck me the most about Lantana was not the well-laid plot, more the thoroughly realistic characters and performances. The classic 'mystery' thread was really only the setting for the several different relationships and couples featured in the film.

But having said that, the story itself was gutsy and twisting to keep you guessing till the end, all without the need for non-essential narrative or the need to keep spelling things out. The questions were all answered so far as the story was concerned, but because of the complexity and realism in all the principle characters, i still left the cinema rolling plenty of the emotional issues through my mind for hours after.

La Paglia was fantastic. His character, though shown as an adulterer from the very beginning, captured so many of the current male 'indentities' with great subtlety instead of a stereotyped 'hug session' which most recent films dealing with the subject matter inevitably lead to. He so easily showed the internal conflicts which most normal Australian men deal with day-to-day while still keeping up the brave face we all do.

I also enjoyed the quirky way the relatively small number of characters were all drawn together by fairly consequential links, and without a huge big statement of it in the end - no matter how many people there are on the planet, it still amazes me how small and incestual problem-circles end up becoming :)

This film has the potential to appeal to so many different audiences - works as a mystery, cop-drama, "chick flick", and to anyone who could ever relate to the 'feel' of Australia, which the film captures perfectly through great ambient audio and natural-looking lighting.

Well written, directed, photographed and cast give this one an easy full marks.