Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is a great Aussie film! A very strong, emotionally demanding story of love and trust and longing, set in what seems to be a suburb out of Sydney. Supposedly a suspense thriller, Lantana is in fact a psychological drama about several middle-aged couples whose paths cross, and who are experiencing various degrees of marital and family problems. These interrelated stories form a credible plot that skillfully examines the emotional havoc and pitfalls experienced by many people who are in their forties-fifties, and which at the same time provides an entertaining mystery. The acting is superb, particularly Anthony LaPaglia who portrays a policeman, a complex man who is having an affair amidst his mid-life crisis. All of the characters are believable and fully fleshed out. The screenplay is beautifully written; the direction and the cinematography are superb. More than happy to give it 8 stars and recommend it.

"Lantana" is an excellent film. Ostensibly a thriller, it is, in essence, a psychological drama about a number of middle-aged married couples whose paths cross and who are experiencing various degrees of marital and family difficulties. Set in what seems to be small-town Australia but is, in fact, a suburb of Sydney (judging by what is said in a news broadcast about one of the pivotal incidents of the plot), the story features a policeman, Leon Zat (brilliantly portrayed by Anthony LaPaglia). Zat is slap bang in the middle of a mid-life crisis. He is having an affair with a woman named Jane (Rachael Blake), who is separated from her husband. He has symptoms of possible coronary problems; he is violent towards suspects; and he is angry towards his wife, Sonja (Kerry Armstrong), and sometimes towards his lover. In one telling scene, he accidentally collides with a jogger in the street and loses his top with him before realising that he has overreacted. Sonja is seeing an American relationship counsellor, Valerie (Barbara Hershey), who is married to John (Geoffrey Rush). Valerie and John's marriage has been in difficulty since the death of their daughter a few years ago. It seems that Valerie suspects that John may be having a relationship with a gay man whom she is counselling. When Valerie herself disappears after her car breaks down late at night, suspicion falls on one of Jane's neighbours, Nik, who is happily married to Paula, with whom Jane has a good friendship. These interrelated stories form a credible plot that skilfully examines the emotional turbulence and pitfalls experienced by many people who are in their forties and which at the same time provides an entertaining puzzle. The acting in "Lantana" is superb. The screenplay is, for the most part, plausible (there is perhaps a slight over-reliance on coincidence in the way in which the lives of the principal characters intersect). It is also beautifully written. All of the characters are believable and fully fleshed out. The direction and the cinematography are first rate. And the soundtrack, which is primarily made up of Buena Vista Social Club-style Cuban dance music, is very entertaining. "Lantana" is an intelligent and entertaining film. 9/10. There is one slight mystery about the film. I may have missed something but I do not understand the reason for its title. Wikipedia suggests that "lantana" is a genus of a perennial flowering plant that is common in the Australian-Pacific region. But quite what that has to do with the film, even one whose opening scene is of a camera panning through a plantation that hides the limbs of a dead woman's body, is not immediately clear (to me, at least).

This is classed as a thriller, and while it doesn't have the most "thrilling" moments, it is a film that will certainly grip you. Basically it is an ensemble character film that sees Detective Leon Zat (The Client's Anthony LaPaglia) having an affair with dance class attendee Jane 'Janie' O'May (Rachael Blake), Leon's wife Sonja (Kerry Armstrong) sees psychiatrist Dr. Valerie Somers (Beaches' Barbara Hershey), and she suspects her husband John Knox (Geoffrey Rush) is having an affair with one of her gay patients. Valerie is driving home one night and has her car break down, and the next morning John reports her missing to the police, and Leon is the one investigating. After confessing his affair to an upset Sonja, Leon then goes to Valerie's married neighbours, nurse Paula Daniels (Daniella Farinacci) and husband Nik (Vince Colosimo). Nik saw Jane throw something out the car window into the Lantana plants, it's Valerie's shoe, and Nik is taken into custody refusing to answer any questions. Eventually it comes out that Nik was driving along the road, and picked Valerie up, but she jumped out again as they went along an unknown road, leaving behind the shoe. So Leon, his partner Detective Claudia Wiss (Leah Purcell), Nik and John go to the spot where she jumped out, and they do find her body, she accidentally fell down. When Leon returns home, he listens to the tapes of his wife having therapy with Valerie, she said she still loves him, and he cries. He then goes to Sonja, and then film ends with them dancing seductively together, Leon has improved his steps, and Sonja can't quite have as much passion, and whether they make up or not is not answered. With great performances, I can agree the finding of the dead body plot line becomes a little less interesting compared to the drama of the character relationships, all involving chance and coincidence, a controlled Australian film. Very good!

This is an excellent film, with great characters and surprising twists. The movie opens with Valerie dead, lying in the thorny brush known locally as lantana - a metaphor, of course, for what life is like for the characters in the tangled plot. Valerie Somers is played by Barbara Hershey, and her husband John Knox by Geoffrey Rush. Anthony LaPaglia plays the police detective Leon Zat investigating her death. We see Valerie and John in flashbacks, showing a deteriorating relationship, and we see Leon in the present, cheating on his wife. Although none of the characters knows each other, their lives are intertwined nonetheless. It's a thicket of relationships that scratches and draws blood.LaPaglia and Rush are outstanding. John is a major suspect, as all husbands are in the deaths of their wives, and John and Leon spar as the investigation shows the bad blood between John and Valerie. We learn, finally, that John is factually innocent, but he is morally guilty of her death all the same. Leon at first sneers at John and his naked emotion, but events turn on Leon, wrenching from him his manly self esteem.This is an adult film, dealing with adult themes. No action, no gunfights, no superheroes. Just us humans muddling through. Director Ray Lawrence and writer Andrew Bovell give us much to chew over, moments of understanding, and finally acceptance of our condition.