A poor but entertaining romantic comedy
Joko E.H. Anwar, Contributor, Jakarta
Andai Ia Tahu (If He Only Knew) **1/2 (out of ****); Drama/Comedy/Romance; Starring Rachel Maryam, Marcellius Siahaan, Priscillia Camelia, Alex Abbad, Harry Pantja; Directed by Indra Yudhistira; A Transinema Pictures Production In Indonesian
It has been quite a long time since a local filmmaker gave audiences a romantic comedy. The long wait is finally over.
This new Indonesian romantic comedy is very thin in plot and low in credibility, but it has enough charm to keep the audience interested.
Young freelance writer Renata (Rachel Maryam) is trapped in an elevator with a young TV producer named Rio (Marcellius Siahaan).
The woman is free-spirited and full of life, the man is rather stiff (both are gorgeous, by the way), but after several minutes the sparks begin to fly between them.
After they get out of the elevator they fail to see each other again, but keep wondering if they aren't actually soul mates.
The rest of the movie deals with the two trying to see each other again, unfortunately with a rather forced plot.
The story will immediately recall several Hollywood movies, including Nora Ephron's minor romantic classic Sleepless in Seattle and Peter Chelsom's Serendipity, but that's OK.
However, while those two movies are played as fair tales, Andai Ia Tahu operates on coincidences and contrivances.
The obstacles created to keep Renata and Roy apart are often unbelievable, and there is little at stake for the two to be together.
Roy is engaged to another woman but from the very beginning it is establish that his fiance is rude and insensitive (compare this character with Bill Pullman's sweet character in Sleepless in Seattle).
And the movie does not give us enough reason to believe that Renata and Rio are soul mates, since we do not have the opportunity to get to know them better.
There are also numerous superfluous scenes (such as Renata discussing her forgetful father with her mother), which should have been used to explore the characters instead.
Fortunately, there is a definite chemistry between Rachel and Marcellius, and both posses the screen presence to keep the audience's attention despite the fact that Marcellius' performance is sometimes wooden and unintentionally funny.
Andai Ia Tahu works better, however, as a comedy, with many funny one-liners and several amusing ideas.
Former MTV VJ Alex Abbad is OK as Marcellius' best friend, but Harry Pantja as the bogus psychic threatens to steal every scene he appears in.
Harry, who previously appeared in local horror hit Jelangkung, is perfectly cast in this deadpan role.
Despite the derivative story, the script is better than several recently released local movies that suffered from even basic plotting problems.
Even though it threatens to float away, the story still moves forward. The biggest problem is that the movie needs to be tightened up to really fly. The story drags at times, particularly in the middle section.
It is interesting to compare this movie with mega-hit Ada Apa dengan Cinta? (What's Up with Cinta?), which was released early this year and launched its young star Nicholas Saputra to stardom.
The movie received high praise from critics and set a record with more than 2.5 million viewers nationwide.
Andai Ia Tahu may not win over critics but it should do well at the box office since the filmmakers seem to understand their target audience.
This may enable Trans TV, the first local TV station to produce a movie for theatrical release, to achieve its ambition of becoming a big player in the film industry.
Andai Ia Tahu is the second outing for young director Indra Yudhistira, who previously made the frustratingly inept action thriller Jakarta Project, which showed his lack of experience.
His second movie shows improvement with more sure-handed direction, promising a bright future for the filmmaker.
However, it is still too early for Indra to be satisfied, especially in the technical department. Andai Ia Tahu has all the right notes but suffers because they are clumsily played.