Between the Pages

Lantana is an Australian movie, made in 2001.  Its a psychological thriller, but lacks the tension of most films in this genre.

It is about four marriages, which are all connected in some way, even though not all the members of the respective marriages realise this. It seems that each marriage has it’s secrets and problems, and when a woman goes missing, everyone involved is affected in one way or another. Anthony LaPaglia is the main character in the movie; he plays a police officer named Leon Zat, who is tasked with finding the missing woman. I found him to be an entirely unsympathetic and unlikeable character, although that is not to say that I didn’t think the character was well drawn.

This movie is actually less about finding out what happened to the missing woman, and more about exploring the relationships, and what is really going on within them.

The first 45 minutes or so of this film did drag somewhat and I thought I might get bored by it (it seemed little more than a mediocre made-for-television movie), but it did pick up and I found myself really interested in the second half of the movie.

The acting was very good all round.  Anthony LaPaglia breathed life into his role as Leon – I didn’t like the character, and it was clear that Leon didn’t always like himself either.  Geoffrey Rush and Barbara Hershey were also both extremely good in their respective roles.

I believe that the title of the movie is a reference to the plant of the same name. There is a hedge of this plant growing outside some of the characters houses – it is a very tangled plant, and my belief is that it represents the tangled relationships of the characters, although I could be entirely wrong about this.

Overall, I would give this film 3 out of 5 – slow start, but did pick up.

Year of release: 2001

Director: Ray Lawrene

Writer: Andrew Bovell

Main cast: Anthony LaPaglia, Geoffrey Rush, Barbara Hershey, Rachael Blake, Kerry Armstrong