‘Falling In Love Like In Movies’ Netflix Movie Review - So Good!

When was the last time a rom-com made me THIS happy? I think it was Vivek Athreya's Ante Sundaraniki that filled me with so much ecstasy that the first thing I did after watching the film was recommend it to everyone on my contact list. I was hit with a similar feeling after watching Jatuh Cinta Seperti Di Film-Film (aka, Falling in Love Like in the Movies). It only proves that a good rom-com not only instills love in the minds of the protagonists. It also charges the audience with passion towards everything from people to movies. You come out with a spring in your step and a desire to scream that everybody should see what you just saw in a theater or on Netflix. Jatuh Cinta Seperti Di Film-Film is one of the movies I would recommend to my friends looking for something romantic.

In Jatuh Cinta Seperti Di Film-Film, writer-director Yandy Laurens converts filmmaking into hindsight. You are not always able to grasp the gravity of the ongoing situation or what the person sitting in front of you might be thinking or feeling. But if you, like Bagus (Ringgo Agus Rahman), are in the moviemaking business and your next script deals with your personal life, you can revisit, and reevaluate the mistakes you might have made at some point. Bagus takes inspiration from his love life to write his new script. He has a crush on Hana (Nirina Zubir), his friend from high school. When, as adults, they meet at a supermarket, old feelings come to the surface, leading to the translation of real-life experiences into a screenplay.

Bagus, at first, is so preoccupied with his feelings for Hana that he fails to notice what must be running inside her mind or how sharply his words could bruise her senses. When he looks at the monitor while shooting a café scene, he understands Hana's feelings through the actress who plays Hana in Bagus's film. Even during various revisions and suggestions from his actors, he slowly realizes how self-centered, and cruel he had been towards the love of his life. Bagus is unable to comprehend why Hana cannot move on and be on the same page as him. For her, he is not the love of her life. She is still grieving the loss of her husband. This emotion gives rise to two grief-related scenes in the film: One is cinematic, while the other attempts to correct the portrayal of this cinematic grief. Filmmaking, in Jatuh Cinta Seperti Di Film-Film, is all about correction, connection, and second chances.

This movie could have only been made by someone who loves not only films but also filmmaking. Laurens has a lot of fun twisting, breaking, and re-assembling the scenes. He enjoys removing the line between fiction and reality. He constantly takes you in and out of the narrative. This technique doesn't sit well with you initially. Yoram (Alex Abbad), Bagus's boss, keeps interrupting Bagus when he narrates his script. His interference, as well as inquiries, register as an attempt to hold the hands of the audience who don't watch black-and-white or "art" films. The humor generated through Yoram looks like an assurance that this is not a "pretentious," "festival" film. But you slowly accept the film's style. You feel as liberated as Laurens once you embrace this conceit.

The color portions appear in a boxed frame and take place in the characters' real lives. The film within the film is represented through black-and-white, and the frames expand during these portions. This might be Laurens's way of suggesting that the reel life is more flexible than the real life. One can do almost anything in movies, like seeing a moment from multiple angles or confessing love with an injury (the movies are expansive in that way). The reality, however, is more complicated and less definitive. Some situations (like Hana finding out about Bagus's script) on the screen can be incredibly dramatic. The same situation can be less intense in real life. Movies can comfort you with unambiguous endings, but you can't expect such a thing from your ordinary life. I talked about colorful frames representing reality and black-and-white Bagus' film. This interpretation, too, becomes insignificant when, towards the end, you realize where the first few seconds of that opening scene in Yoram's office take place (in terms of fiction and reality). Laurens's rule seems to be that there is no rule to be followed here. I would have rolled my eyes if the director had been unsuccessful in fleshing out the emotions.

Laurens succeeds due to his skills, though it also greatly helps that Rahman and Zubir are just excellent. He effectively portrays longing, and she simply unleashes her talent energetically. Zubir overshadows everyone on the screen. She, along with Rahman, gives the movie a lovely rhythm that immediately involves you in the story. Observe how easily, and effortlessly their characters start talking to each other at the supermarket. They convince you that they indeed have a history.

Bagus has two friends who happen to be a married couple: Cheline (Sheila Dara Aisha), an editor, and Dion (Dion Wiyoko), an actor (I know you are thinking about Celine Dion). Dion, at one point, says that his shoot got canceled because his co-actor went MIA. Later, Bagus gets frustrated with a creative producer and goes MIA. Is the latter incident derived from the former one? Is Bagus also taking pages out of his friend's life? Of course, since Laurens is the writer-director of this film, there emerges a possibility that his script could have been influenced by his own personal life. There is a board in an office that reads, "The more personal the script, the better," or something like that. Whatever the case, Jatuh Cinta Seperti Di Film-Film is so charming that it leaves you elated.

Final Score- [9/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times