Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by clarkjohnsen (R) on February 12, 2002 at 08:32:02

Saw it Sunday: What a movie!

At the time I hadn't known this, but lantana is a low-lying, flowered brambly plant that develops thorns. Now you know that, before you encounter the film's central image.

The story-line is encased in what must be called a murder mystery, although one is unsure who the victim will be. While at the start the plot develops linearly, it threatens at every moment to veer off drastically, so that one never knows what's coming next. I like that! Also the director introduces a smart element of Altmanism as he follows the ultimately interlocking stories of four couples: A police detective (Anthony Lapaglia) and his wife, a law school dean (Geoffrey Rush) and his wife who recently suffered the murder of their young daughter, the detective's furtive squeeze and her sometime husband, and finally her two next-door neighbors. Quite an assembly! The ensemble is later joined by a lonely gay guy.

Nor despite all the couples stuff is this a chick flick! Rich in incident and deeply mysterious, the movie succeeded in invoking an emotional response from the large matinee audience; I wasn't the only person making noises and squirming in his seat. Yet never did I feel manipulated. The feelings flowed naturally and I welcomed them all. Several scenes too are burnt into my memory; I shall not soon forget the incident where two runners collide. Damn! I can't imagine such a thing being portrayed on stage or in a novel; it is incomparably cinematic. Nor does that seemingly random encounter remain unconnected to other characters.

See this while you can, in the theatre. Like most great films it works best uninterrupted and with an audience present. Do not let it slip through your fingers!