The real tragedy of Lantana is that we see the corpse of Valerie at the very outset. We know that she dies prematurely from the title sequence and thus are constantly looking out for clues or indicators from the director (Ray Lawrence). Had we not seen this, then our focus of our attention for the first hour would have been on the spreading and tangled influences of the lives and relationships within the film upon one another. The film would have then taken a darker, more sinister turn with the disappearance of Valerie and the playing out of people's lives and loves and choices and fears would have continued from there. It could have been almost Twin Peaks-y in the way that the malevolence and darkness slowly built while never obscuring the wider themes of the piece.
That said it is still a very good, very powerful film. Anthony LaPaglia leads as an emotionally-stunted, bullying policeman who jeopardises his marriage and family without thought and then comes to see the depth of that betrayal and the ramifications. This is juxtaposed with the lives of other people throughout the film and we see an interesting device whereby LaPaglia learns about himself and his life by interviewing suspects. Similarly, the therapist Valerie listens to her patients as a means of making sense of her own relationship and grief over her recently-murdered daughter.
The film is slow-moving and painstaking, you can imagine that it would drive people crazy in a multiplex. The themes of love and betrayal and the breakdown of trust are played out in situations where no-one is honest and no-one is solely to blame, there is no black and white and no clear moralising here. One of the characters utters the phrase "sometimes love isn't enough" and that could be the theme of the film. That said, the film also demonstrates that sometimes love is enough. The couple who retain their trust in one another throughout are the happiest as the film closes, the character who is least interested in trust and honesty but views relationships as a contest (Patrick, played by Peter Phelps) loses the game of his choosing. All of this without the issue of Valerie's disappearance and death- it is not a straightforward piece at all.
I really liked the confident direction and some of the visual touches- the coldness of the police station contrasted with the warmth of the homes for example- were tremendous, the unflinching portrayal of an unsympathetic situation, the attention paid to each aspect of each story- and the performances were excellent throughout (Kerry Armstrong as LaPaglia's wife Sonja was absolutely exceptional). All in all it was a great story with interesting undercurrents expertly told. 7/10- it would be 8 but for the opening giveaway!
