Saltine - Totally agree about Lantana...wonderful indie film, and I was pleased to hear it come up a few months ago in either Matty or Adam's top 5 Austrailian films (I wouldn't put it in my own top 5, but it's still a very well done movie).
I'd use the words "delicately handled" to describe it; there are an awful lot of pitfalls and cliches that another writer or director could have easily fallen into. I was real impressed with how the script was carried out, it didn't pander to what a mainstream audience would want fulfilled, and stays true to it's characters. The dance sequence at the end between Lapaglia and his wife was masterfully handled...chalk full of intense, unspoken connection...an awful lot of wonderfully emotive subtext shines through with the sparse dialogue in that scene.
My respect for Anthony Lapaglia, not that it was ever lacking, has gone way up since checking out some of his roles in indie movies like Lantana. Another one where his performance impressed me was Winter Solstice, with Alison Janey, Ron Livingston (in a very random, and funny, supporting role), and the actor that plays Pyro in X-Men 2 as Lapaglia's son. The guy is just rock solid throughout his body of work, and it's a shame in the 00's he's unfortunately so associated with Law & Order (or whichever run of the mill cop show he's on).