Awful Aussies

It looks like Canada is not the only English-speaking country that has picked up on the worst parts of American culture. Australian filmmaker Ray Lawrence has offered us Lantana, a near duplicate of Magnolia--impressive ensemble cast, overwrought script, slow pacing and a title that references foliage.

The story, which features Anthony LaPaglia, Barbara Hershey and Geoffrey Rush amongst others, has a whole lot of cheating and the odd death. Its all very tiresome, with shifts from scene to scene with fade to black shots that tease importance, but eventually are so overused that they provide the film with about four false endings. The thing won't end until each of the characters' paths have crossed.

The message of Lantana, which is spelled out in both obvious and extremely obvious ways, is that no loving relationship can exist without trust. Such a Puritanical theme works surprisingly well for about 20 minutes--but the moment is fleeting and we are left with only outstanding performances (especially LaPaglia and an understated Rush) to carry the show. Like its title suggests, Lantana is mostly shrub.