Lantana
...all of them will survive."
Lantana tells the story of eight couples who are joined through sex, betrayal and death. The four marriages are between Leon and Sonja, Jane and Pete, Nik and Paula, and Valerie and John. The story shows the way the relationships are intertwined through these factors. Valerie is the one that connects them all although this is not obvious in the beginning and the audience identifies with Leon as the main protagonist as he seems to be the one connecting the relationships through his role as detective in Valerie's disappearance.
We first meet Leon at the beginning of his one nightstand with Jane, which becomes two nights. We then meet his wife Sonja at the Latin dancing class which she has encouraged to re-ignite passion in their marriage and this is ultimately where their marriage goes off the tracks as it is here that Leon meets Jane. Leon is the anti-hero in that is the typical Australian male; strong and unable to express his feelings. We run with Leon throughout the movie experiencing the situation mainly through his emotions or lack of, he is a man at the edge and this is evident in the way we see him beat up a suspect for being a drug dealer. This scene is the first where Leon's emotional state becomes apparent and we see that he is suffering and does not know how to express it. His state becomes more apparent when he confronts Patrick and his partner, Claudia, says; "your marriage is falling apart and so are you."
The reason the audience identifies with Leon because of his apparent connection to all of the characters. He comes into contact with all the characters at some point in the movie. He is having an affair with Jane who is separated from Pete who Leon meets in a chance encounter in a bar, he is married to Sonja who is seeing Valerie who is a psychologist married to John who is the first suspect in her disappearance. Leon...
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