Lantana (film)

Lantana
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ray Lawrence
Produced by	Jan Chapman
Screenplay by	Andrew Bovell
Based on	Speaking In Tongues by Andrew Bovell
Starring	Anthony LaPaglia Geoffrey Rush Barbara Hershey Kerry Armstrong Rachael Blake Vince Colosimo Russell Dykstra Daniela Farinacci Peter Phelps Leah Purcell Glenn Robbins
Music by	Paul Kelly
Cinematography	Mandy Walker
Edited by	Karl Sodersten
Production company	Australian Film Finance Corporation MBP New South Wales Film and Television Office Jan Chapman Films
Distributed by	Palace Films
Release dates	8 July 2001 (2001-07-08) (Sydney Film Festival)
Running time	121 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English
Box office	$15.7 million

Lantana is a 2001 Australian film, directed by Ray Lawrence and starring Anthony LaPaglia, Kerry Armstrong, Geoffrey Rush and Barbara Hershey. It is based on the play Speaking In Tongues by Andrew Bovell, which premiered at Sydney's Griffin Theatre Company. The film won seven AACTA Awards including Best Film and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Lantana is set in suburban Sydney and focuses on the complex relationships between the characters in the film. The central event of the film is the disappearance and death of a woman whose body is shown at the start of the film, but whose identity is not revealed until later. The film's name derives from the plant Lantana, a weed prevalent in suburban Sydney.

Plot

An unknown woman's body is seen caught in the lantana bush, missing a shoe. Leon (Anthony LaPaglia), a police officer, and Jane (Rachael Blake) have sex in a motel room. They part ways, and we see that Leon and his wife Sonja (Kerry Armstrong) attend Latin dance classes that the recently separated Jane is also taking. Leon does not enjoy the classes, and is seen savagely beating a drug dealer during a bust. He has emotional issues, but won't confront or admit to them. Sonja sees a therapist, Valerie (Barbara Hershey) who has just published a book on her own daughter's murder 18 months ago. She and her husband, John, (Geoffrey Rush) are barely on speaking terms; he later refers to their marriage as held together by their grief. She feels threatened by another patient of hers, Patrick Phelan, who is having an affair with a married man and is forcing Valerie to confront her own issues in her marriage to John.

Hoping to see Leon again, Jane purposely bumps into him outside the police station, and they have sex again, despite Leon's reservations about taking it any further. Her next door neighbour, Nik, is upset that she is seeing someone because he is friends with her estranged husband Pete, who wants to return home. Jane pairs up with Sonja in the next salsa class, which angers Leon; he ends their arrangement, which upsets Jane. She invites Nik over for coffee at the behest of his wife, Paula, with whom she is friendly, and offers him money as they are struggling. Paula starts to dislike Jane because of it.

Valerie is coming home late one night and drives off the road. She is stranded, and makes several calls to John, who does not answer. Finally, she is seen approaching a car coming along the road, but never makes it home. Leon is the investigating detective on the case, and looks into her office and notes. Surprised at seeing his wife's name and file, he takes a recording of their sessions.

Leon arrives home late but Sonja is not asleep: he asks her about her therapy sessions with Valerie, they discuss their relationship and he tells her of his affair which had just ended, but that he still loves her. Sonja is very upset and feels betrayed. Leon sleeps on the couch, in the morning Sonja says he'll be lucky if she returns home that night. Leon goes to John's house to interrogate him as the main suspect in his wife's disappearance. Leon starts a discussion about love, marriage and having affairs but lies to John when asked if he ever had an affair. Leon goes to Jane's house on police duty, because she has placed a call. Her neighbours are Paula (Daniella Farinacci), a nurse, and Nik (Vince Colosimo). Jane was up late one night, watching Nik arrive home and throw something in the bushes across the road from her house: later she finds it is a woman's shoe. Leon and his partner arrive at Jane's and declare that the shoe was Valerie's.

The police take Nik to the station and he leaves his children with Jane. Police call Paula to come in from her work. Neither Nik nor Paula knows that Jane made the police call. Although Paula does not like Jane, she calls her to thank her for minding their children. The police interrogate Nik but he refuses to answer questions about Valerie, repeatedly asking to see Paula. After seeing his wife, Nik calms down and talks with Leon and his partner. Valerie had car trouble and Nik was driving past; he agreed to give her a lift to her home but she panicked when he took a back road short cut and left his truck. Valerie had run off leaving behind her shoe. Paula goes to Jane's house to get her children, where she tells her that Nik is innocent of Valerie's disappearance. Jane asks how she knows that, and Paula simply replies that he told her. Jane asks if she can spend more time with the kids, but Paula forbids it, after seeing how Jane went over into her house and tidied it. Leon, his partner, Nik, and John go to the place where Valerie jumped out of the truck. They find her body where she had accidentally fallen down a ravine. Leon listens to the rest of the therapy tape where his wife had said that she still loved him and he bursts into tears.

Leon returns home and sees his wife outside. Jane salsa dances alone, drinking and smoking, while Pete leaves her. Patrick is pained to see his lover happily spending time with his wife and kids. Nik and Paula appear to have recovered from the whole affair, and seem to have been the only honest and happy people of them all. The movie ends with Sonja and Leon dancing together seductively. Leon, who at the beginning of the film finds dancing with his wife difficult, now appears to be doing well. He looks Sonja directly in her eyes and dances just as she always wanted. Sonja struggles to initially return Leon's gaze but does so just before the movie ends.

Cast

• Anthony LaPaglia as Leon Zat
• Geoffrey Rush as John Knox
• Barbara Hershey as Valerie Somers
• Kerry Armstrong as Sonja Zat
• Rachael Blake as Jane O'May
• Vince Colosimo as Nik D'Amato
• Russell Dykstra as Neil Toohey
• Daniella Farinacci as Paula D'Amato
• Peter Phelps as Patrick Phelan
• Leah Purcell as Claudia Weis
• Glenn Robbins as Pete O'May

Reception

Box office

Lantana opened on December 14, 2001 in North America in 6 theaters and grossed $66,701 with an average of $11,116 per theater and ranking #39 at the box office. Its widest release was 108 theaters and it ended up earning $4,623,189. The film earned $11,124,261 internationally (including $6,125,907 in Australia) for a total of $15,747,450.

Critical response

Lantana received positive reviews from critics and has a 'certified fresh' score of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 103 reviews with an average rating of 7.4 out of 10. The critical consensus states "Lantana is an intricately plotted character study that quietly shines with authenticity." The film also has a score of 84 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 29 critics indicating "universal acclaim".

Writer and critic Roger Ebert compared the film to Short Cuts and Magnolia in terms of how it developed the connections between the lives of strangers. It premiered in the UK on Channel 4 in December 2006. British critic Philip French described the film as a "thoughtful, gripping movie" based around the themes of "trust in its various forms, betrayal, forgiveness and grief".

Accolades

Award	Category	Subject	Result
AACTA Awards (2001 AFI Awards)	Best Film	Jan Chapman	Won
	Best Director	Ray Lawrence	Won
	Best Adapted Screenplay	Andrew Bovell	Won
	Harper’s Bazaar AFI Screenwriting Prize		Won
	Best Actor	Anthony LaPaglia	Won
	Best Actress	Kerry Armstrong	Won
	Best Supporting Actor	Vince Colosimo	Won
	Best Supporting Actress	Rachael Blake	Won
		Daniela Farinacci	Nominated
	Best Editing	Karl Sodersten	Nominated
	Best Original Music Score	Paul Kelly	Nominated
	Best Sound	Syd Butterworth	Nominated
		Andrew Plain	Nominated
		Robert Sullivan	Nominated
	Best Production Design	Kim Buddee	Nominated
	Best Costume Design	Margot Wilson	Nominated
ARIA Music Award	Best Original Soundtrack Album	Paul Kelly	Won
Australian Cinematographers Society	Award of Distinction — Feature Productions Cinema	Mandy Walker	Won
ASSG Award	Best Achievement in Sound for a Feature Film — Location Sound Recording	Syd Butterworth	Won
AWGIE Award	Best Writing in a Feature Film — Adapted	Andrew Bovell	Won
BIFA Award	Best Foreign Independent Film — English Language	Jan Chapman	Won
Chlotrudis Awards	Best Adapted Screenplay	Andrew Bovell	Won
	Best Actor	Anthony LaPaglia	Nominated
Festival du Film Policier de Cognac	Critics Award	Ray Lawrence	Won
	Special Jury Prize		Won
Durban International Film Festival	Best Actor	Anthony LaPaglia	Won
FCCA Awards	Best Film	Jan Chapman	Won
	Best Director	Ray Lawrence	Nominated
	Best Screenplay — Adapted	Andrew Bovell	Won
	Best Actor — Male	Anthony LaPaglia	Won
	Best Actor — Female	Kerry Armstrong	Won
	Best Supporting Actor — Male	Vince Colosimo	Nominated
		Peter Phelps	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actor — Female	Rachael Blake	Nominated
		Daniela Farinacci	Won
		Leah Purcell	Nominated
	Best Cinematography	Mandy Walker	Nominated
	Best Editing	Karl Sodersten	Nominated
	Best Music Score	Paul Kelly	Nominated
Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival	Jury Award for Best Film	Ray Lawrence	Won
	Jury Award for Best Director		Won
	Jury Award for Best Script	Andrew Bovell	Won
	Jury Award for Best Ensemble Cast		Won
Inside Film Awards	Box Office Achievement		Won
	Best Feature Film	Jan Chapman	Won
		Ray Lawrence	Won
	Best Direction		Won
	Best Script	Andrew Bovell	Won
	Best Actor	Anthony LaPaglia	Won
	Best Actress	The ensemble female cast	Won
	Best Cinematography	Mandy Walker	Nominated
	Best Music	Paul Kelly	Nominated
	Best Sound Design	Andrew Plain	Nominated
Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists	Silver Ribbon for Best Foreign Director	Ray Lawrence	Nominated
London Film Critics' Circle Awards	Film of the Year	Jan Chapman	Nominated
	Screenwriter of the Year	Andrew Bovell	Won
	Actress of the Year	Kerry Armstrong	Nominated
Melbourne International Film Festival Award	Most Popular Feature Film	Ray Lawrence	Won
National Board of Review, USA	Special Recognition for Excellence in Filmmaking		Won
San Sebastián International Film Festival	Golden Seashell	Ray Lawrence	Nominated

See also

• Cinema of Australia

External links

• Lantana at IMDb
• Lantana at the National Film and Sound Archive