Under the opening credits of LANTANA we watch a long, slow tracking shot through a grove of tangled, thorny lantana vines that ends on the crumpled body of a woman. The lantana is a metaphor for the prickly, intertwined relationships we are about to discover in this low-key Australian mystery-thriller. Its central plot is a flashback to the disappearace of the woman, and our cinematic journey to the resolution of that mystery and the revelations it produces, is, like the lantana vines in the opening shot, full of twists and turns. Engaging plot and superb acting by Anthony LaPaglia, Barbara Hershey, Geoffrey Rush and others.
