ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Parker Lewis Lantana is a captivating Australian movie. The fact that it has nearly 17,000 IMDb votes, and over 200 user reviews is a testament to this fine movie directed by Ray Lawrence and written by Andrew Bovell.It's not an action movie, so if you're into fast and/or furious cars, Marvel superheroes, and so on, then please respectfully vacate your cinema seat, please. Just do so.The emotions that interweave in this high standard movie is incredible, and the subtlety draws you in. You can feel the tension as the scenes play out, and in a way you don't want the movie to end, so compelling it is. Lantana is a movie for the ages.

SnoopyStyle A dead woman's body is caught up in the woods. Plice detective Leon Zat ((Anthony LaPaglia) is out of shape and suffers bouts of violence. He's cheating on his wife Sonja with Jane. Sonja goes to well-known author therapist Valerie Somers (Barbara Hershey). Valerie's daughter Eleanor was murdered and she wrote a book about her. She and her husband John (Geoffrey Rush) are struggling. She drives her car off the road and gets picked up by somebody unknown. Jane sees her neighbor Nik drive home late at night. Leon investigates missing Valerie.There are a lot of characters in interconnected stories. It is a little difficult to keep them all straight when the actors are not all well known. The first hour of this two hour movie is a little slow. It's a lot of introduction and laying down relationships before the disappearance of Valerie. The body at the beginning tricked me a little by amping me up for a police investigation right from the start. The second half is a pretty good mystery thriller. It's murky and moody. I wish the first half is tighter and we get to the investigation sooner.

Sindre Kaspersen Australian screenwriter and director Ray Lawrence's second feature film which was written by Australian playwright and screenwriter Andrew Bovell, is an adaptation of Andrew Bovell's stage play called "Speaking in Tongues" from 1996. It premiered at the 48th Sydney Film Festival in 2001, was shot on location in Sydney, Australia and is an Australian production which was produced by Australian producer Jan Chapman. It tells the story about a police officer named Leon who lives in a suburb with his wife named Sonja and their two sons. Leon and Sonja are both having concerns about their marriage and whilst Sonja talks to a psychiatrist named Valerie, Leon befriends a woman named Jane. Distinctly and precisely directed by Australian filmmaker Ray Lawrence, this rhythmic fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints, draws an invariably engaging portrayal of a cop who after beginning an affair with a woman he meets at a dancing course learns that a therapist has disappeared. While notable for it's naturalistic milieu depictions, sterling production design by production designer Kim Buddee, cinematography by cinematographer Mandy Walker and costume design by costume designer Margot Wilson, this character-driven and narrative-driven story depicts several interrelated and refined studies of character and contains an efficient score by Australian composer Paul Kelly. This romantic, conversational and atmospheric thriller which is set in Sydney, Australia and where interpersonal relations and personalities are acutely examined and characters as poignant as the stories, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, subtle character development, enigmatic characters, incorporation of theater in cinema and the reverent acting performances by Australian actors Anthony LaPaglia and Geoffrey Rush, Australian actresses Rachael Blake and Kerry Armstrong and American actress Barbara Hershey. An eloquent, dramatic and multifaceted mystery from the early 2000s which gained, among numerous other awards, the award for Best Film at the 43rd AFI Awards in 2001.

Jackson Booth-Millard This is classed as a thriller, and while it doesn't have the most "thrilling" moments, it is a film that will certainly grip you. Basically it is an ensemble character film that sees Detective Leon Zat (The Client's Anthony LaPaglia) having an affair with dance class attendee Jane 'Janie' O'May (Rachael Blake), Leon's wife Sonja (Kerry Armstrong) sees psychiatrist Dr. Valerie Somers (Beaches' Barbara Hershey), and she suspects her husband John Knox (Geoffrey Rush) is having an affair with one of her gay patients. Valerie is driving home one night and has her car break down, and the next morning John reports her missing to the police, and Leon is the one investigating. After confessing his affair to an upset Sonja, Leon then goes to Valerie's married neighbours, nurse Paula Daniels (Daniella Farinacci) and husband Nik (Vince Colosimo). Nik saw Jane throw something out the car window into the Lantana plants, it's Valerie's shoe, and Nik is taken into custody refusing to answer any questions. Eventually it comes out that Nik was driving along the road, and picked Valerie up, but she jumped out again as they went along an unknown road, leaving behind the shoe. So Leon, his partner Detective Claudia Wiss (Leah Purcell), Nik and John go to the spot where she jumped out, and they do find her body, she accidentally fell down. When Leon returns home, he listens to the tapes of his wife having therapy with Valerie, she said she still loves him, and he cries. He then goes to Sonja, and then film ends with them dancing seductively together, Leon has improved his steps, and Sonja can't quite have as much passion, and whether they make up or not is not answered. With great performances, I can agree the finding of the dead body plot line becomes a little less interesting compared to the drama of the character relationships, all involving chance and coincidence, a controlled Australian film. Very good!