Lantana

Lantana is a fine film, but it is as grim as a funeral. It also does something that often annoys me--it relies on incredible coincidences. After watching this film one would think everyone in Sydney knows each other.

Named after a weed, the film is a complex psychological drama that, at the halfway point, turns into a mystery. The main character is a police detective, Anthony LaPaglia, who is having an affair with a woman he met at a dance class. His wife, Kerry Armstrong, sensing something is wrong in the marriage, sees a psychiatrist (Barbara Hersey) who has just written a book about the murder of her young daughter. LaPaglia ends up investigating the case, and who should turn out to be a witness but the woman he is having an affair with (Rachel Blake).

Lantana was released in 2001 and directed by Ray Lawrence, who is able to give the film an oppressive feel, such that no matter what is happening in the film one can expect something bad to happen at any moment. Almost all of the characters are in bad straits. LaPaglia, who gives a fine performance, is a man who feels so numb that he harms his marriage, while Hershey's husband, Geoffrey Rush, is a man who, after losing his daughter, just goes through the motions of life.

The film won all sorts of awards in Australia but I found its coincidences too outrageous and some plot turns too sensational. LaPaglia violates several laws, such as taking his own wife's file out of the psychiatrist's office. His partner, Leah Purcell, seems to be watching along with us, her eyebrows raised at every dubious turn.