(rated R, 120 mins.)
In a small Australian town taking its name from a plant whose exterior leaves conceal thick branches, so does it reflect the lives of a small group whose affairs and friendships seemed bonded yet pricked at. Marriages are held together by different things. For some they are held by kids, for others passion, but for Dr. Valerie Simmons (Barbara Hershey) and her husband (Geoffrey Rush) marriage is held together by grief of a dead child. Through Dr. Simmon’s patients Sonja (Kelly Armstrong), the frustrated police detective’s wife who knows her husband, Leon (Anthony Lapaglia) the story’s central character is having an affair, we learn that women want trust and passion in a relationship. Trust is as vital to a relationship as breath is to life and for some women, living the lie is easier then living the truth. “Betrayal isn’t from sleeping with another woman but that he wouldn’t tell me,” says Armstrong. In another vignette Dr. Simmons soothes Patrick (Peter Phelps) a young gay man she suspects is sleeping with her own husband. Eventually murder takes place and those accused did nothing wrong while those in the wrong are off the hook. There is a paradox in trusting strangers over spouses. LaPaglia’s bulky, cop-appeal presence is almost sexy as he deals with middle age through salsa dancing, sex and a badge, but Lantana’s one flaw like the flower’s thorns, is that what begins as an intimate look at relationships ends like an episode of “L A Law.”
