This is an excellent 2001 Australian movie, a measured thriller for grownups that centers around four couples whose lives overlap -- sometimes profoundly, sometimes briefly and unknown to them but with severe consequences. Leon Zat (LaPaglia) is a hardened police detective estranged from his lovely wife Sonja (Armstrong) and sons. Dr. Valerie Somers (Hershey), a psychiatrist, and her husband, Professor John Knox are cool and restrained in the wake of their daughter's murder, about which Somers has just published a grief-memoir. Jane O'May (Blake) is separated from her husband, and lives next door to the young, loving, but poor couple Paula and Nik. Although nearly all these characters cross paths, the crucial encounters are these: Leon has a fiery but loveless affair with Jane, Valerie fears her husband is having a homosexual affair, Sonja is secretly getting counseling from Valerie. When Dr. Somers disappears one late and rainy night, various lies and secrets surface, cross, get confused -- and Nik is brought in as a suspect in Valerie's disappearance. Leon's affair with Jane collides with both his home life and work. Well plotted, strongly acted (especially by LaPaglia and Blake), and interestingly photographed and paced. Andrew Bovell wrote the screenplay based on his play "Speaking in Tongues" and Ray Lawrence directed.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
LANTANA is a movie directed in 2001 by australian director Ray Lawrence. The picture won seven major awards of the Australian Film institute.
LANTANA is a film in the old Robert Altman manner. Several people lives are affected when Barbara Hershey, a psychiatrist, disappears one night. In charge of the case, Anthony LaPaglia is a 40 years old cop who's just begun to cheat on his wife Kerry Armstrong. He discovers, after having stolen a cassette in Hershey's office, that his wife was consulting the missing doctor and that she's also suffering from their agonizing couple relation. When his mistress becomes a key witness in the case, LaPaglia begins to lose his nerves. When the case is solved, he will have decided what to do with his life.
A terrific drama about love, midlife crises and relationships between men and women that will haunt you for days. One of the best movies of 2001.
The review of this Movie prepared by Daniel Staebler