Lantana Summary

Lantana Summary

The film opens with a shot of lantana flowers. Beneath them lies the lifeless body of a woman. We meet Leon, a detective who is having an affair with Jane a woman from the dance class he attends with his wife. Jane has separated from her husband as she has lost passion for him. We are then introduced to Valerie, a therapist who is with Patrick a patient who is having an affair with a married man. Valerie and her husband John lost their daughter nearly two years ago and Valerie has written a book about it. Her and John’s marriage is strained and they hardly connect with one another anymore.

Jane purposefully runs into Leon outside of the police station and they sleep together for the second time. Leon has an issue with his heart and they stop. We learn that Leon has deep rooted emotional issues and they rage out of control when he runs over a man on his morning jog, breaking his nose and blaming the whole thing on the innocent man. Leon’s partner covers for him with Sonja, his wife and we see that Nik and Paula, Jane’s neighbors know what is going on with Jane sleeping with a cop. Nik doesn’t like it because he hopes that she will get back with her husband.

Later at dance class Sonja pairs up with Jane and this makes Leon angry. Still he skips going to a club with Sonja to have a drink with Jane. During their drink she tells him she keeps thinking about what their relationship could be, and Leon ends the affair. We then find Sonja having a therapy session with Valerie. She knows Leon is having an affair and wants him to tell her.

Soon after a session with Patrick, Valerie believes that Patrick is sleeping with her husband. She goes for a long drive in the night and drives off the road. Her car won’t start and she’s stranded. She’s able to walk to a pay phone and calls John multiple times for help but he isn’t home. Her last message is saying that she knows he’s sleeping with Patrick and she loves him.

We then see Jane watching Nik throw a shoe into the bush in the middle of the night. The next day she goes to find it and calls the cops. Leon and his partner show up to investigate which complicates things as Jane’s husband is now home and Leon randomly met him in a bar a few nights prior not knowing who he was. After Jane gives her statement Leon begins to investigate and finds tapes from Valerie’s office. One of which has his wife’s name on it and he listens to it finding out she wants him to tell her of his affair. When he goes home that night he tells her that he’s been sleeping with Jane because he’s numb and doesn’t feel anything. She’s enraged by his betrayal and won’t talk to him.

Leon continues his investigation and interrogates Nik about what happened as he believes he is the one who killed Valerie. We come to learn that Nik did pick up Valerie that night and took a shortcut off the main road but before he could tell her what he was doing she believes he’s kidnapping her and jumps out of the car. He tries to get her to come back but she won’t so, he leaves her and she dies in the bush that night. Leon brings John to the crime scene and John confesses that he was home when Valerie left the messages on the answering machine and he chose not to answer. He believed she would come back home. Leon then listens the his wife’s tape from her therapy session with Valerie and hears her say that she is still in love with him despite his adultery. He breaks down and goes home to tell her that he doesn’t want to lose her. The film ends with Leon and Sonja dancing slowly together, connected more deeply than before. Leon has his eyes focused on her, and Sonja appears scared and vulnerable but stays in the moment dancing with her husband.

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