LANTANA


I wish I had the faculty of language to describe the film that I watched last night, but I don't. All I can say is that I had a wonderful, no, superb movie experience last night. And its all because of the Australian Film "Lantana".

One good thing with my office address is it is just in front of Greenbelt 1 which now host the Art Film of the Ayala Cinemas. Starting September 19 up to September 28 Greenbelt 1 played host to the First Australian Film Festival (I missed the film "The Sum of Us", starring Russel Crowe because I was sick when it was shown) Last night's feature was "Lantana".

To know more about the film, please click here, this will lead you the films Official Website.

This is a must see film. Acting was great and so was the story. It is one of the film that would make you think and it is full of surprises.

The central theme of the story is trust and the character Valerie (portrayed by Barbara Hershey) explained it in the film when she said "trust is as vital to human relationships as breathing is to life." Trust in this film is presented in the context of a married life. This is the synopsis of the film as provided by film's website

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 an intriguing 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. Detective Leon Zat moves through a dark labyrinth of human relationships on his journey to solve the mystery of a woman's disappearance. He strips away layer after layer to reveal the tender and dark underbelly of this perplexing obsession between men and women called love. And each layer causes him to reflect back on his own marriage, on what he has lost and what he must get back.

Leon (Anthony LaPaglia) had an affair (two night stand) with Jane (Rachel Blake) who is estranged with her husband Pete (Glenn Robbins). Leon's wife Sonja (Kerry Armstrong) has suspicion and consulted her psychologist Valerie. Valerie is struggling with her other patient Patrick (Peter Phelps) who is gay and admitted to having a relationship with a married guy whom Valerie suspect to be her husband John (Geoffrey Rush) who is silently agonizing from the murder of their 11-year-old daughter.

One night Valerie almost had an accident in a dark road and hailed a van driven by Nik (Vince Colosimo) who with his wife Paula (Daniela Farinacci) are the close friend neighbor of Jane. On that night, Valerie was reported missing and on the same night, Jane saw Nick threw a shoe on the Lantana bushes.



The film is full of twists and surprises. Before you could jump into conclusion, your opinion will suddenly be debunked by the next revelation in the film.

If you have the opportunity to watch this film, don't fail to watch it. It is worth your time and would really make you think about the relationships your are in right now.

And yes, Lantana is that flower beside the title of this article.