Review of the movie "Lantana"

Florian Rübener

Jan 2011 · GRIN Verlag

About this eBook

Literature Review from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2,0, University of Duisburg-Essen (Department of Anglophone Studies), course: Filming Australia, language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction Release date 2001 Lantana is an Australian film that was released in 2001 and directed by Ray Lawrence. It is based on Andrew Bovell’s play Speaking In Tongues. The movie is set in a suburban area of Sydney and portrays the lives of nine different characters focusing especially on their relationships and their individual struggle with emotions. The name Lantana means the plant Lantana, a very thick and tangled shrub. The title can be interpreted as a metaphor for the tangled, intertwined relationships that are presented in the film. Lantana was the first movie that won all of the top six categories of the Australian Film Institute (AFI) awards: best picture, best director, best actress, best actor, best supporting actress, best supporting actor.1 1.1 Plot summary Lantana tells the story of eight couples who are joined through sex, betrayal and death. The four marriages are between Leon and Sonja, Jane and Pete, Nik and Paula, and Valerie and John. The central event in Lantana is the mysterious death of psychiatrist Dr. Valerie Sommers, her body is found in a remote forrest near a quiet back road. Detective Leon Zat is called to solve the case and during his investigations he discovers that his wife Sonja was one of Valerie’s clients because of their unfulfilling marriage. Leon suspects Valerie’s husband John Knox, who claims he wasn’t at home when his wife desperatley called him from a phone box, saying her car broke down, to be involved in his wife’s death. Leon finds out that John and Valerie had their own difficulties with their relationship based on the murder of their daughter Eleanor and Valerie’s suspicion of John having an affair with her latest client, Patrick. Leon’s investigations lead to an awkward situation with Jane O'May, a woman he has a short-term affair with. She finds a crucial clue, one of Valerie’s shoes, in the shrubs of her neighbour Nik, a seemingly loving father and husband. It turns out that Valerie had an accident and Nik picked her up intending to drive her home. But when Nik spontaneously took a shortcut Valerie paniced an jumped out of the car. Nik didn’t mean to scare her so he just left her there in the forrest but later he found her shoe in his car.