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Overall Rating
 Awesome: 42.7%
Worth A Look: 37.08%
Just Average: 11.24%
Pretty Crappy: 4.49%
Sucks: 4.49%
6 reviews, 53 user ratings
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Lantana |
by Spinner
"An Australian film that surpasses all others of late."

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Lantana is one of the best Australian films for a long time. It's complex, mature, engaging and intelligent, and it works on many different levels. A welcome relief from the quirky non-sense films that have plagued the Australian film industry for the last five years.First and foremost Lantana is a film about people. Very human everyday people faced with very real tangible problems. Secondly Lantana is about relationships. Relationships between these people and the problems that engulf and entangle them.
Lantana is a noxious weed that grows out of control. It's thick and vigorous, concealing and irrepressible. It's an apt metaphor for infidelities, loss, unhappiness and a suitable hiding place for a body.
Masculinity in its many guises and disguises is at the driving heart of the film. It explores the stereotypes around men and manhood and mens' relationships with women, marriage, work and their own sense of self worth.
This material is absolutely engaging and presented in a very honest way as stories weave and interweave and the plot unfolds, providing a wonderful vehicle for established Australian and International actors. The casting is generally faultless, the performances measured and candid. Anthony La Paglia delivers a stunning, emotionally rich and convincing performance as a man who has lost touch with himself and his wife. Kerry Armstrong is magnetic. Rachel Blake and Barbara Hershey are solid. Vince Colosimo has greath depth and onscreen presence.
Somewhat less able are Peter Phelps as a bitter gay man undergoing counselling - (an unfortunately predicatable approach to character) and Glenn Robbins as a spurned husband. The biggest surprise in Lantana is a damp, half-hearted performance from Geoffrey Rush.
If Lantana is in any way compromised it is by some very obvious continuity issues (water on externals of car windows when shot from inside, but none when shot from outside) and 'one coincidence too many', for the story relies upon many characters having tenuous, incidental or established connections and some of these are forced. If one can accept this small contrivance a la Altman style films, then the body of the film, its theme and atmosphere, its sheer quality makes it a very polished and rewarding viewing experience.The reason Lantana took home virtually every major award at the most recent Australian Film Industry (AFI) Awards is because it is not only the best Australian film of the year. It is probably the best Australian film in many, many years.
link directly to this review at https://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com/review.php?movie=5563&reviewer=288 originally posted: 02/24/02 06:16:02
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USA 25-Jan-2002 (R)
UK N/A
Australia 04-Oct-2001
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