Ah a more low-key, non-Hollywood movie. Sometimes this is a good thing and that's generally the case here.
Here we have Anthony LaPaglia as the cop, Leon Zat. He's not having the best social life - cheat on the wife, having a small midlife crisis. He's seeing a shrink for his problems . and around this operates certain other characters, such as the gay man troubled by the married man he is seeing. All these stories seem somewhat disparate and unconnected but, much like say `Magnolia', they all meet and overlap around a certain point in an amusing fashion. It's reasonably smart, although some of the twists are fairly well sign-posted and lose their surprise/humour value (although there is one thoroughly enjoyable one which had me fooled).
What `Lantana' is mostly about is characters. It's a character piece, with a few elements of drama strapped around to propel itself along. Characters depend on a dual combo of decent acting and script and fortunately `Lantana' provides both qualities. The protagonists are chiefly men, making this movie an exploration of male value systems. This can be quite funny, thanks to a sharp script. There's a wonderful dialog where one man says how he wants to cry now and then, and the other replies perfectly, `Yeah but you don't, do you?' Brilliant. None of the characters are one-dimensional, and they even manage to achieve an unusual three-dimensional aspect. They feel like people you can really meet - sometimes sad, sometimes happy, sometimes lost and confused. That allows the audience to relate to them, a key element in a character movie. As the characters develop (or as they do not), we feel we're getting to empathise with humans, rather than a three line summary of a human that Hollywood often delivers to us. There's some nuances that are both script based and actor delivered, and it all works well.
`Lantana' is not a wonderful movie, in the sense there's not enough plot always and the plot itself has some unfortunate forced coincidences. It is however a refreshing break from the turgid deliveries festered upon us by Hollywood's machine. With a good script, good acting, and an ability to portray people, I'll give it my recommendation. 8/10.
Here we have Anthony LaPaglia as the cop, Leon Zat. He's not having the best social life - cheat on the wife, having a small midlife crisis. He's seeing a shrink for his problems . and around this operates certain other characters, such as the gay man troubled by the married man he is seeing. All these stories seem somewhat disparate and unconnected but, much like say `Magnolia', they all meet and overlap around a certain point in an amusing fashion. It's reasonably smart, although some of the twists are fairly well sign-posted and lose their surprise/humour value (although there is one thoroughly enjoyable one which had me fooled).
What `Lantana' is mostly about is characters. It's a character piece, with a few elements of drama strapped around to propel itself along. Characters depend on a dual combo of decent acting and script and fortunately `Lantana' provides both qualities. The protagonists are chiefly men, making this movie an exploration of male value systems. This can be quite funny, thanks to a sharp script. There's a wonderful dialog where one man says how he wants to cry now and then, and the other replies perfectly, `Yeah but you don't, do you?' Brilliant. None of the characters are one-dimensional, and they even manage to achieve an unusual three-dimensional aspect. They feel like people you can really meet - sometimes sad, sometimes happy, sometimes lost and confused. That allows the audience to relate to them, a key element in a character movie. As the characters develop (or as they do not), we feel we're getting to empathise with humans, rather than a three line summary of a human that Hollywood often delivers to us. There's some nuances that are both script based and actor delivered, and it all works well.
`Lantana' is not a wonderful movie, in the sense there's not enough plot always and the plot itself has some unfortunate forced coincidences. It is however a refreshing break from the turgid deliveries festered upon us by Hollywood's machine. With a good script, good acting, and an ability to portray people, I'll give it my recommendation. 8/10.