list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Lantana on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Lantana/195251/default.aspx Title: Lantana
Year: 2001
Director: Ray Lawrence
Plot: The intertwined lives of four couples living in and around Sydney, Australia, form the structure for this drama masquerading as a whodunit. Andrew Bovell freely adapted his play, Speaking in Tongues, opening up the action, as the geography and topography of Sydney and its suburbs become major characters as well. The film opens with a shot of what looks like a corpse entangled in a thick stand of branches -- the title plant, which grows in profusion in Australia. Bovell and director Ray Lawrence take their time in explaining whose body that is and then slowly reveal, with no help from a number of red herrings, how it happened to be there. The principal players are Valerie Somers (Barbara Hershey), a psychiatrist with issues over her child, a murder victim; her husband, John Knox (Geoffrey Rush), an aloof professor whom she suspects of infidelity; Leon Zat (Anthony LaPaglia), a police detective cheating on his wife, Sonja (Kerry Armstrong), who is a patient of Valerie's. Zat's mistress, Jane O'May (Rachael Blake), is someone he met at a dancing class his wife dragged him to; she is estranged from her husband, Pete (Glenn L. Robbins). Their neighbors, Paula (Daniela Farinacci) and Nik D'Amato (Vince Colosimo), try to stay neutral in the O'Mays' split; she works days as a nurse and he's unemployed and minds their children. Suspicion around the disappearance of one character manages to enmesh all of the others. Bovell's stories are about secrets, real and imagined, and how they can poison relationships. The film virtually swept all the major awards at the Australian Film Institute's annual ceremony, though its reception in the States was mildly respectful. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 6
Number of Lists: 10
Number of blog posts: 3
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:54:37 GMTLantana2001Ray LawrenceThe intertwined lives of four couples living in and around Sydney, Australia, form the structure for this drama masquerading as a whodunit. Andrew Bovell freely adapted his play, Speaking in Tongues, opening up the action, as the geography and topography of Sydney and its suburbs become major characters as well. The film opens with a shot of what looks like a corpse entangled in a thick stand of branches -- the title plant, which grows in profusion in Australia. Bovell and director Ray Lawrence take their time in explaining whose body that is and then slowly reveal, with no help from a number of red herrings, how it happened to be there. The principal players are Valerie Somers (<a href="/players/P____32030/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Barbara Hershey</a>), a psychiatrist with issues over her child, a murder victim; her husband, John Knox (<a href="/players/P___151418/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Geoffrey Rush</a>), an aloof professor whom she suspects of infidelity; Leon Zat (<a href="/players/P____39765/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Anthony LaPaglia</a>), a police detective cheating on his wife, Sonja (Kerry Armstrong), who is a patient of Valerie's. Zat's mistress, Jane O'May (Rachael Blake), is someone he met at a dancing class his wife dragged him to; she is estranged from her husband, Pete (Glenn L. Robbins). Their neighbors, Paula (Daniela Farinacci) and Nik D'Amato (Vince Colosimo), try to stay neutral in the O'Mays' split; she works days as a nurse and he's unemployed and minds their children. Suspicion around the disappearance of one character manages to enmesh all of the others. Bovell's stories are about secrets, real and imagined, and how they can poison relationships. The film virtually swept all the major awards at the Australian Film Institute's annual ceremony, though its reception in the States was mildly respectful. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide6Taggedy Taggged (6-10)1033http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t17984swucd.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Lantana/195251/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/blogs/estela/archive/2008/7/17/32659.aspx Post By: estela
Post To: estela Blog
Post Date: 7/17/2008 10:36:15 AM
Body: Lantana never ceases to be interesting. Based on Andrew Bovell's play "Speaking in Tongues", this Australian box office hit drama follows a number of people who become intertwined in a labyrinth of love, sex and deceit and amazing ramifications. This film is a pure cinematic delight great characters. I hope you get time to view it. Film synopsis: A woman disappears. Four marriages are drawn into a tangled web of love, deceit, sex and death. Not all of them will survive. LANTANA is a psychological drama about love, infidelity and mistrust. It's about the mistakes we make, the consequences we suffer and the attempts we make to fix things up.
]]>Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:36:15 GMTestelaestela Blog7/17/2008 10:36:15 AMLantana never ceases to be interesting. Based on Andrew Bovell's play "Speaking in Tongues", this Australian box office hit drama follows a number of people who become intertwined in a labyrinth of love, sex and deceit and amazing ramifications. This film is a pure cinematic delight great characters. I hope you get time to view it. Film synopsis: A woman disappears. Four marriages are drawn into a tangled web of love, deceit, sex and death. Not all of them will survive. LANTANA is a psychological drama about love, infidelity and mistrust. It's about the mistakes we make, the consequences we suffer and the attempts we make to fix things up. http://www.spout.com/blogs/jimbell/archive/2007/5/17/8949.aspx Post By: JimBell
Post To: JimBell Blog
Post Date: 5/17/2007 4:35:00 PM
Body: Lantana (I have no idea what the title means) is an Australian production, including Barbara Hershey and Geoffrey Rush, which is ostensibly a murder mystery. It opens with the slow, panning shot of a dead woman face down in the bush. Then murder does not rear its head for another hour as we see every middle-aged marriage (except one) in some sort of crisis. So the point is that most Australian marriages of any duration are arid and treacherous. That may well be true, but no matter how fine the acting, it is tough to watch. When the murder kicks in things get much more interesting. And the actual “murder” is in many senses realistic. It is in keeping with the realism of the rest of the movie. The film ends with flashes of the subsequent relations of the characters. If you’re into the angst of (especially Australian) marriages of middle-aged couples, then this provides fascinating variety. I thought it was a poor picture, and I was glad I had ironing to do. It lingers in my mind as a touchstone for boring.
]]>Thu, 17 May 2007 20:35:00 GMTJimBellJimBell Blog5/17/2007 4:35:00 PMLantana (I have no idea what the title means) is an Australian production, including Barbara Hershey and Geoffrey Rush, which is ostensibly a murder mystery. It opens with the slow, panning shot of a dead woman face down in the bush. Then murder does not rear its head for another hour as we see every middle-aged marriage (except one) in some sort of crisis. So the point is that most Australian marriages of any duration are arid and treacherous. That may well be true, but no matter how fine the acting, it is tough to watch. When the murder kicks in things get much more interesting. And the actual &ldquo;murder&rdquo; is in many senses realistic. It is in keeping with the realism of the rest of the movie. The film ends with flashes of the subsequent relations of the characters. If you&rsquo;re into the angst of (especially Australian) marriages of middle-aged couples, then this provides fascinating variety. I thought it was a poor picture, and I was glad I had ironing to do. It lingers in my mind as a touchstone for boring. http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/noir/MemberTagFilms.aspxnoir
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