Lantana

Lantana Directed by Ray Lawrence

 

Albert Moran, notes that Australian film makers have an obsession with the small domestic stories, which flood the base of our films, moist probably because of our small population, geographical distance form the rest of the world and short history. Usually they are dry and long with no real ending left for the Audience to decide.

 

Lantana, is the Australian “domestic” film which worked. As a lot of Australian films, the film is stemmed from a stage play, Speaking In Tongs, and while it is essentially an ensemble piece it works beautifully on screen. The film cleverly unwinds to find that all the couples and individuals are connected in some way.

 

Leon begins sleeping with Jane after boredom in his marriage. Jane is in the process of separation of her own unsuccessful marriage. Sonja, Leon’s wife goes to counselling because she suspects Leon is up to something where she is counselled by Dr Valerie Somers who has had marital problems since she and her Husband, John lost their daughter to murder. This then starts the unravelling of the story when Valerie goes missing and Leon is assigned to look after the case. Leon’s personal experience with the case opens the film to expose the themes, which are similar in the realities of these lives, that they are more complicated than a fairy story and that what we think should go right can sometimes go very wrong.

 

The tone of the film, which Laurence embraced, was a cold creepy, visually desaturated tone throughout to casts a shadow over the piece, continuously making the audience suspicious and uncomfortable.

 

One of the jewels of the film is its ability to expose a more truthful study of modern day suburban lives compared previous simple films such as The Sentimental Bloke . This style of modern day life is also seen in the recent television series of Love My Way, which, like Lantana was extremely popular for Australian audiences. I think they are so good because they show the people and issues we as Australians see every day. Audiences can relate to the

 

The first shot shows us the mangled body of Valerie suspended in the twisted bush of lantana. This shot, while chilling draws an audience in to follow the untangling of the story over the films duration. The story mimics the tangled web of lantana we see at the beginning. I think the imagery used supported by natural sounds rather than an organised score adds to the creepy nature of the story. It helps to tell the delicacies of the story’s web and assist the complications and themes of deceit, trust and boredom within relationships is done so well in this story that it makes an audience think and ultimately isn’t that what any film maker wants from their film.

 

It is just clever film, which takes advantage of the visual medium. It did make me uncomfortable because it was so close to home. Usually when we see thrillers of this kind they are set internationally and thus are separated from our context but when they are set around where you live it give you a sense of reality for the story to be told in. I believe this is why it worked well here.