LANTANA
Australia, 2001, 115 minutes, Colour.
Anthony La Paglia, Geoffrey Rush, Barbara Hershey, Kerry Armstrong, Vince Colosimo, Rachel Blake, Glenn Robbins, Leah Purcell, Daniella Farinacci, Peter Phelps.
Directed by Ray Lawrence.
Lantana is a very interesting film, well-written, intriguingly structured with its mosaic of characters and their relationships as well as the mysterious dead body with which the film opens. It merited the Australian Film Institute
awards it won for Best Film, Best Director for Ray Lawrence, Best Screenplay for Andrew Bovell and the acting awards to Anthony LaPaglia?, Kerry Armstrong, Rachael Blake, Vince Colosimo. The other members of the cast led by Geoffrey Rush and Barbara Hershey were also convincing. Lantana was a fine film that treated adult themes intelligently and emotionally.
Most of the characters are in the middle of an emotional mid-life crisis brought about by marriage collapse, marital
infidelity, the murder of a child. They were not functioning normally. And since the action of the film takes place over merely a week or more, we were not in a position to see these characters as themselves. We were seeing them in their shadow experiences.
One should quickly add that there actually is a normal couple in the film, although they do have their own crisis, crucial to the resolution of the plot. The ordinary couple is Nick and Paula with their three children. Life is hard for them with Nick unemployed and Paula having to do extra shifts at the hospital. They are lucky to have a good home (even thought the fastidious Jane does tidy it to the chagrin of Paula) and their vehicles. Nick seems the typical Aussie male, perhaps more gentle and demonstrative towards his kids, even to wheeling the pram up the street, than the average dad. In his singlet and shorts and having a drink with his mates, he seems to be relaxed. Paula is more organised, a good mother. They are outdoors types, even enjoying being outside lying on the lawn with the kids which, after the crisis, is where we last see them.
But what of the principal characters? We have to start with Leon and Sonja. In their marriage they are going through the motions. Leon has a two night stand, has chest pains when he jogs (and does not look fit), kicks out viciously during the arrest of a drug dealer, lies about his relationships and his infidelity, comes on the heavy when he finds his sixteen year old son smoking pot. When he crashes into the man in the street, he responds in violence - but we see, momentarily, that the real Leon has a more tender side when he holds the weeping man. He befriends Pete in the bar and listens to his stories. He still wants his sons to kiss their father goodbye on the way to school. He is able to do his job but is uptight and unreasonably suspicious. We can see it in his body language, especially when he dances stiffly and awkwardly with Sonja during the lesson.
When he sits in the car listening again to the tape of Sonja's therapy session and hears her say she loves him, he breaks and weeps. The more authentic Leon can then hear John's 'confession' and dance rhythmically and gently with Sonja. During the film we see him thrown back into his inner-life confusion, sometimes gripped by berserk emotion and fixated suspicion of John and Patrick.
We have better insight into Sonja through her sessions with Valerie. She tells Valerie she has wanted passion in her
life. She seems to get her energy from 'out there', especially from the dance studio as we see her moving with exhilaration with the instructor and with Jane. At home, we see her with her sons, the meals, the clothes ... She seems to be overwhelmed by her suspicions of her husband although, as she says, the ultimate betrayal is not his having an affair but in not telling her. The crisis sends her into herself, into a momentary sex fumbling in a car and to an angry silence at home. But, she is true to herself. She says she could manage if she left Leon. But she does not want to and, more sure of herself and more accepting of him, she is able to move on.
If Leon and Sonja are a more extraverted couple, John and Valerie seem more introverted, he the Law academic, she the psychologist. We see very little of John, either at home or at work. As he says to Leon, when parents lose a child, there is damage. He visits the site where his daughter's body was found and keeps it secret from Valerie. He cannot understand how she can write her book about the experience and tell the whole world. Though she says she learnt trust from John, she becomes more and more suspicious of him, the more she listens to Patrick and his gay affair and dislikes him. John and Valerie, despite lovemaking, which John says is not so necessary, do not communicate. Valerie is sharp with Patrick, accuses Peter in the street of harassing her. Though her final words on the phone to John are "I love you", she is still distressed to think that the kindly Nick taking a short cut (which he does not explain to her) wants to assault her - and she runs to her death. John is able to confess to Leon that he was at home when she rang and did not answer. "Sometimes love is not enough." We last see him, alone, with his back to us, looking out over the water. We know even less about Jane and Pete except that their marriage has failed, that Jane is lonely and, without qualms, begins and affair with Leon. Whether she went to the dance studio because she was more extraverted or because she wanted to get out of the house, we don't know. In fact, we see her mainly in the house, going out mainly to chat with Nick and Paula. Her situation has sent her into an opposite of detached attitudes and opened up unreasonable possibilities, especially of flirtatious behaviour. She is left dancing alone in the house. We see less of Pete. He seems to be the proverbial good bloke, a friend to Nick, happy to meet up with Leon and chat and ready, without notice, to go over to see how Jane is or help her when she rings him in need. But, the only resolution he experiences is not to go into the house to Jane.
Andrew Bovell has not only written an ingenious screenplay, interweaving the four couples' stories as well as those of Patrick and of Claudia, Leon's partner, but he has written a truly humane screenplay.
1. The acclaim of the film in Australia, the awards, favourable reviews overseas? An Australian film that travelled well internationally?
2. The title, the focus on the plant, a noxious weed, encroaching on life and destroying it? Concealing? The lantana as a symbol for what was happening in the relationships in the film?
3. The Sydney settings, inner-city, Paddington, the North Shore, the water? The range of homes? Suburbia? The roads? The police stations? An authentic atmosphere? The musical score and its atmosphere?
4. The structure of the film as a mosaic, the interconnection of the characters, coincidences? A satisfying presentation of interconnection?
5. Themes of age and midlife, the passing of time and its effect, love and marriage, the cooling of marriages and break-up, family, the death of a child, passion, fidelity and infidelity? Discovery that love is not enough?
6. The four couples: seeing them together, the young couple and their family, the potential for breaking up, the broken marriage? Beginning again? Each of the couples being a mirror to the others?
7. The opening with the dead body, the sense of mystery - the police investigation, the solution, its not being so sinister, rather ordinary, the experience of fear and death?
8. Leon and his one-night stand with Jane, coming home to Sonia and the children, going to the dance lesson, seeing Jane there, restoring the earring, his awkward body language, not being at home, out of place with Sonia and the dancing? The passionless marriage? At home, the morning, breakfast, the son wanting clothes, his father wanting him to give a kiss and the comment about sons growing too old for kissing (and the later outburst against his son for smoking pot)? Going to work, his relationship with Claudia, their working together, her intuition about his situation and her comments? Going jogging, not being fit, running into the mystery man, the injuries, his outburst, picking up the shopping bag, embracing the mystery man as he wept? Telling the story later to Pete - and trying to brush it off, especially the emotional aspects of hugging and kissing? The drug bust, his brutality in kicking the guilty? Claudia's comments? His seeing Jane again in the street, Claudia being present? His lying about the relationship, a second-night stand?
9. Audiences knowing more about Sonia because of her sessions with Valerie, her revealing herself and her character, her marriage, family, her love for her children, wanting passion in her life, fearing that Leon was having an affair, the fact that not telling her would be the greatest betrayal? Valerie asking her whether she still loved her husband and the pause (as well as the pause when Leon was listening to the tape in the car, leaving the affirmation until the very end of the film)? Her love of dancing? The salsa evening? Seeing her at home, with the children, her advising the son to bring the marijuana home where it could be under control rather than smoking elsewhere? The sex encounter after the salsa and her not being able to go through with it? Seeing her at home, the ordinary routines, meals, clothes? Unable to talk with Leon? His confessing the affair, her upset, not speaking to him, his sleeping on the couch, the reaction of the boys? The phone call and the son making up the message that his father wanted reconciliation?
10. Valerie and the book, her speech at the launch, John's arrival, the themes of family, death, love and trust? The discussions with John, in the car about sex, the sexual encounter and the aftermath? The dinner? Seeing them together at home, the sleep-in? separate cars? John and his academic background and the audience not seeing him there? Valerie and her sessions, upset after the dinner, her anger with Pete in the street and accusing him of harassment? Driving home, nodding, the crash, her walking, the phone and the three messages, the anxiety about Patrick, hailing down the car, saying that she loved John?
11. Valerie and her sessions with Sonia, sympathetic? The discussions with Patrick, his affair, homosexuality, responsibility? Her open-mindedness on the issues? Her seeming dislike of Patrick and his response to this? Patrick and his taunting her, her applying his comments about the homosexual married man to herself and John? Her mentioning her concern about Patrick on the phone message?
12. Patrick in himself, with Valerie, his explanations, therapy, asking her questions, taunting her? The tape? Leon listening to it, going to his home, expecting to find John, the truth?
13. Jane, separation from Pete, living alone, in the house, her going to the dance sessions, even dancing with Sonia? Her friendship with Nick and Paula? Chatting outside, inviting Nick in, Paula's hostile reaction? Her wanting Pete to come over? Her affair with Leon, two-night stand? Awake in the night, seeing Nick throw the shoe away? Hiding in the bush to find the shoe? Her deliberation whether she should phone the police, her doing so? Again inviting Pete over, minding the kids for Nick? Tidying up the house? Paula telling her off?
14. Pete and Nick and their friendship, his visiting the house when Jane wasn't there, discussions with Nick, his being hurt? The encounter with Valerie in the street and its mystifying him, in the bar, explaining things to Leon, the friendliness with Leon, meeting him again, the irony of Leon's relationship with Jane? Staying the night, supporting her while Nick was at the police station?
15. Claudia, the efficiency of her work, Aboriginal background, working in the police? Her ability to tell the truth, balance things out with Leon? The encounter with Sonia because of Claudia's knowing about the affair and Sonia's being hurt? Going to eat, the talk about the stranger, his not turning up? The irony of his finally arriving - the mystery man?
16. The ordinariness of Nick and Paula's life, the clothes that they wore, out on the lawn, the truck, the easy relationship with the kids, Nick wheeling the pram? The untidy house? Friendship with Jane, Nick invited in and explaining it to Paula? The audience seeing him throw the shoe away, going to look for it? Paula and her work at the hospital, Nick unemployed?
17. Leon and the discussions with Patrick, his harshness? His antagonism towards John, accusing him of having an affair? John and his explaining that he had gone to visit the site of his daughter's death - which we see him doing? But it being a lie and his finally confessing to John that he had been at home and not answered the phone? John and the arrest of Nick, Nick knowing him from the affair, the interrogation, Paula outside and her exasperation? The emergence of the truth, Nick explaining things properly, his fear of coming forward?
18. Nick, the resolution of the mystery, the recovery of the body?
19. The ending for each of the characters: Leon and Sonia dancing, he dancing with different body language, much more easily? Jane alone dancing in the house, Pete driving off? Valerie dead, John standing alone looking out over the water? Nick and Paula back at home on the lawn? The film as an analysis, emotional understanding of couples, themes of pain, sadness, commitment, love? Ultimate hope?
