sorry to double post (i've already asked on bos)
but seeing as fsn is apparently where its at...here is my latest lantana essay again...comments and criticisms much appreciated!!
Lantana shows that to communicate honestly is difficult, even for people who love each other. Discuss.
Ray Lawrence?s film Lantana depicts a series of characters moving through middle age, conflict and crisis. Through the interactions of two couples in troubled relationships and one couple, Nik and Paula, who thrive in their marriage, we see that honest communication, or sometimes a lack thereof, proves to be a source of difficulty. A sense of urban alienation is captured by the film?s suburban setting; a product of the ?confused?modern age? to which Valerie refers, in her speech. Not ?know[ing] what to feel anymore? or what is ?right or wrong anymore?, Lawrence?s characters struggle to discern the place and importance of honest communication within their relationships.
Valerie?s character provides a profound example of the modern confusion which she describes herself during her speech. She is undoubtedly able to communicate her feelings, projecting her sense of loss and grief onto the public. Yet despite her profession, Valerie is incapable of having any meaningful dialogue with the person closest to her ? her husband John ? lamenting that ?[they] don?t talk anymore?. Whilst aware of the impacts that a loss of communication is having on her relationship, from John?s perspective in particular, she fails to respond appropriately. Valerie does not recognise how suffocating her attempts to reach John are, attempting to force a sense of intimacy between them, by pleading John to ?look at [her]? during sex, only to be disappointed. Valerie is hurt by John?s pragmatic and somewhat simplistic approach to her troubles with Patrick, simply insisting that she ?refer him on?. Here, Valerie perceives John?s coldness as a rejection and is thus unable to really open up to John until the final moments of her life, by which time the reconciliations of their marriage has become a ?pie in the sky?. ?Afraid of being alone?, Valerie attempts to open up, yet though her unfortunate fate, Lawrence conveys the notion that whilst, at times, difficult, honest communication is an essential component of a healthy marriage.
John?s character provides a similar perspective ? he resists his wife?s attempts at communication, perhaps as he suspects she is trying to analyse him. This is evidenced in the defensiveness towards Valerie as she questions him in the car. Here the car itself acts as a symbol of modern day detachment as John, completely desensitised by grief, attempts to distance himself, emotionally, from his wife. Like Valerie?s more public projections of grief, John similarly finds himself more comfortable communicating with Leon, a stranger to him. Here, Lantana suggests that, as humans we crave communication with others and fear the burden of a secret. Unable to communicate with his wife, John sought a confident in Leon.
Leon is somewhat perturbed by John?s candid admission of previous infidelity as he, perhaps more than an other character, struggles to maintain honest communication with his wife Sonja. Leon struggles to find appropriate avenues to express his confusion over the realisations of middle age instead pursuing their expression through physical means: aggression, jogging and sleeping with Jane. Leon is stunned by the shopper?s raw, open expression of emotion yet it is only through listening to his wife communicating her emotions to a psychiatrist that Leon realises the need for honest communication in his own marriage. He is undoubtedly aware of its importance, proclaiming to John that he ?tell[s his] wife everything? and lamenting to Sonja that ?there was a time when there was no private between [them]?. Hearing Sonja?s tape provides an epiphanic moment for Leon as he realises honest communication to be the single greatest element lacking in his marriage, compelling him to confess his affair to Sonja. Despite its initial devastation, Leon?s ability to renew honest communications in their marriage as ultimately what steered it away from total destruction.
Sonja?s is another character through which the notion of communication in relationships is explored. Like John, she struggles to communicate with her spouse but seeks a confident elsewhere, which whom she may express her feelings. Sonja is able to admit to Valerie that she ?still loves [Leon]? yet finds it difficult to communicate this to Leon himself. Here, the film suggests that perhaps honest communication proves ever more difficult between those who love each other due to the sense of confusion instilled by the modern age. Not knowing what to feel or how to communicate their feelings appropriately, characters are apprehensive of the ramifications that telling the truth could have on their relationship ? Leon understands that he owes Sonja the truth and she herself asserts that it would be the secrecy of an affair rather than the sex that would be the betrayal. Despite this, the affects of the truth prove near catastrophic for Leon and Sonja which perhaps, to some extent, justifies Leon?s apprehension.
Nik and Paula exist in stark contrast to the other couples in the film. Their relationship is solidly built on honesty, trust and loyalty. For Nik, it is not communicating honestly that is most difficult, his reaction to telling the truth clear evidence of the pain of keeping a secret. Due to her utter devotion, loyalty and trust in her husband, Paula needs only hear ?I didn?t do it, babe,? to confirms, in her mind, Nik?s innocence. Reflected by their material poverty, Nik and Paula remain somewhat untouched by the modern confusion and alienation which the plagues the minds of other characters.
Lawrence highlights the effects of the ?confused?modern age? as we see that for most of the couples, their most honest and meaningful communication occurs though a telephone or a tape. Through this mechanism, Lantana conveys a sense of difficulty in maintaining honest communication within relationships.
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