Lantana (film)

Lantana is a 2001 Australian film, directed by Ray Lawrence and starring Anthony LaPaglia, Kerry Armstrong, Geoffrey Rush and Barbara Hershey. It is based on the play Speaking In Tongues by Andrew Bovell, which premiered at Sydneys Griffin Theatre Company. The film won seven AACTA Awards including Best Film and Best Adapted Screenplay.

An unknown womans body is seen caught in the lantana bush, missing a shoe. Leon Anthony LaPaglia, a police officer, and Jane Rachael Blake have sex in a motel room. They part ways, and we see that Leon and his wife Sonja Kerry Armstrong attend Latin dance classes that the recently separated Jane is also taking. Leon does not enjoy the classes, and is seen savagely beating a drug dealer during a bust. He has emotional issues, but wont confront or admit to them. Sonja sees a therapist, Valerie Barbara Hershey who has just published a book on her own daughters murdermonths ago. She and her husband, John, Geoffrey Rush are barely on speaking terms he later refers to their marriage as held together by their grief. She feels threatened by another patient of hers, Patrick Phelan, who is having an affair with a married man and is forcing Valerie to confront her own issues in her marriage to John.Hoping to see Leon again, Jane purposely bumps into him outside the police station, and they have sex again, despite Leons reservations about taking it any further. Her next door neighbour, Nik, is upset that she is seeing someone because he is friends with her estranged husband Pete, who wants to return home. Jane pairs up with Sonja in the next salsa class, which angers Leon he ends their arrangement, which upsets Jane. She invites Nik over for coffee at the behest of his wife, Paula, with whom she is friendly, and offers him money as they are struggling. Paula starts to dislike Jane because of it. ........

Source: Wikipedia