***Exceptional drama about a detective in Sydney… and so much more***

"Lantana" is an Australian drama from 2001 about four couples in the Sydney area (where the film was shot). There are some important peripheral characters as well. The husband of the main couple is a detective going through a mid-life crisis (Anthony LaPaglia). His wife (Kerry Armstrong) knows something's wrong and is getting counseling. The marriage of her counselor (Barbara Hershey) is also troubled due to the death of their young daughter 18 months earlier. The woman the detective is having a fling with (Rachael Blake) lives next door to a couple whose marriage is the only solid relationship in the story (Vince Colosimo & Daniela Farinacci). Or is it? When one of these women turns up missing the counselor's husband becomes a suspect (Geoffrey Rush).

The reason the film's called "Lantana" is because lantana is a tangled shrub common in Australia, which represents the entanglements of the lives of the characters. It also symbolizes marriage since lantana has a sweet but bitter smell: it's beautiful with its flowers, but has "stings"; its branches weave together in a complicated way and in the story a woman is caught in the complexity of it.

"Lantana" is the antithesis of big, dumb, effects-laden "blockbusters," which oddly enough often become boring with their overload of "exciting" things going on. "Lantana" effectively shows that ordinary life is more interesting and compelling, if done right. Human nature is explored through a blend of passionate emotions, misconceptions, betrayals, anger, premature conclusions, vanity, duty, ethics, lies, honesty, loyalty, repentance and restoration.

Three of my all-time favorite dramas are "Grand Canyon” (1991), "Snow Angels" (2007) and “Pulp Fiction” (1994). I place "Lantana" in their company. That's how exceptional it is.

The film runs 2 hours, 1 minute.

GRADE: A