Yasmin Ahmad has released her new movie to much anticipation. Fans of her previous works waited with bated breath. Me being one of them. I did not get a chance to catch it during the first week of its screening; busy with work and everything else. But I couldn’t wait to catch it. My colleagues spoke highly of it; even the guys shed tears. I stumbled upon a review of its gala opening, and the title read “Air Mata Melimpah di Talentime”. So you can tell that I was eager to see it and be wowed. I cajoled my boyfriend who’s not really into watching movies (especially Malaysian ones) into going with me. After much hesitation and deliberation, we finally found ourselves at the ticket counter.
And finally we were seated and the movie began.
For the first three minutes, I was filled with hope and excitement. As it entered the fourth minute doubt began to form. As it progressed to more and more minutes, I began to lose hope. I began to feel suffocated, bored, anxious to leave. The clock seemed to tick by extremely slowly. Finally, the screen went blank. I was never happier to see the end credits of a movie rolling. I could now leave the theatre and start cursing over the wasted 20 bucks and the 2 hours of my life I would never, ever get back.
Now let us get into why I thought the movie was absolute rubbish.
First of all the transitional shots were an absolute waste of time. They were nice and beautiful; possessing some semblance of a nostalgic quality but it was pointless. That’s just a small thing but hang on, it gets better (or should I say worse?)!
The diaolgue were rather wooden-like. The delivery did not help, either. For the veteran casts in the movie, they were not that disappointing. Adibah Noor was good; although she was kinda out of place. There’s something about her perfect English that did not gel quite so well with the movie. Harith was good too, but nothing less is expected of this brilliant actor. Ida Nerina’s presence in Talentime can be likened to salt in saltwater. Good otherwise, but made no sense. Her character posed no actual weight to the movie, and her cameo made me wonder why was she put there? Just to point out that some Malays have a problem with having Chinese maids? Who are these Malays, by the way? Yasmin wanted to make a point, and there’s nothing wrong in making a point, but the way she did it was rather out of place. It had no clear significance to the movie. And how is it that Ida, being a long-time friend of Harith and Mislina’s family, did not know that their Chinese maid was actually a Muslim?
Another point Yasmin made which to me was just plain stupid and did not belong anywhere in a movie that supposedly embraced the Malaysian culture and way of life, was when Pamela Chong and her supposed boyfriend, Mahesh fell asleep next to each other in the family hall of Pamela’s home. When the parents returned from their day-trip to Cameron Highlands to find the kids asleep, Mislina actually commented, “How sweet! Let’s put a blanket over them!” Now which Malaysian family would condone their teenage daughter sleeping next to her teenage boyfriend? And in the family home, no less! Of course no sex was involved but come on! I can almost see myself in that situation, and my mother would definitely wake me up and the boy and in not so many words would tell him to take a hike! I mean Yasmin wanted to portray a liberal Muslim family, who wakes up in the morning to do the Subuh prayers but is ok with a boy falling asleep next to their daughter in their own home. Where on earth is the reality in this scene? This scene will work in a Hollywood movie because their culture is like that, but this is Malaysia for crying out loud! I dare you to take that scene and do a survey in Malaysia, and tell me how many families will actually say “Oh how sweet!” I can safely tell you now, NONE!
However that is not my main problem with the movie. What I found totally ridiculous was the fact that all of the characters were flat characters. None had any actual progressing quality. They were like that when the movie started, and they were still like that when it ended. Whatever happened to round characters? Anyway, perhaps Yasmin really wanted to try something different. So different that it was just plain nonsense.
The mere fact that the movie did not actually have a plot was also pretty disturbing. It was just a collection of little stories which had no resolution whatsoever in the end. It pretty much ladida-ed all the way from the starting right up to the ending. So as I walked out of the movie theatre, I was wondering what the hell happened in the last 2 hours? Was it intentional? Did Yasmin actually wanted to portray nothing? Because if that was the case then the movie can be categorised as a very succesful Absurd. Joining the likes of Beckett and such.
So all in all, I did not enjoy Talentime. I could still go on and on, but I’ve pretty much forgotten the movie, which means I’ve forgotten what I wanted to complain about. During the course of watching, I was already making mental notes of what to jot down in my blog, but it was so forgettable. What I’ve written so far are all that I can remember.
And finally we were seated and the movie began.
For the first three minutes, I was filled with hope and excitement. As it entered the fourth minute doubt began to form. As it progressed to more and more minutes, I began to lose hope. I began to feel suffocated, bored, anxious to leave. The clock seemed to tick by extremely slowly. Finally, the screen went blank. I was never happier to see the end credits of a movie rolling. I could now leave the theatre and start cursing over the wasted 20 bucks and the 2 hours of my life I would never, ever get back.
Now let us get into why I thought the movie was absolute rubbish.
First of all the transitional shots were an absolute waste of time. They were nice and beautiful; possessing some semblance of a nostalgic quality but it was pointless. That’s just a small thing but hang on, it gets better (or should I say worse?)!
The diaolgue were rather wooden-like. The delivery did not help, either. For the veteran casts in the movie, they were not that disappointing. Adibah Noor was good; although she was kinda out of place. There’s something about her perfect English that did not gel quite so well with the movie. Harith was good too, but nothing less is expected of this brilliant actor. Ida Nerina’s presence in Talentime can be likened to salt in saltwater. Good otherwise, but made no sense. Her character posed no actual weight to the movie, and her cameo made me wonder why was she put there? Just to point out that some Malays have a problem with having Chinese maids? Who are these Malays, by the way? Yasmin wanted to make a point, and there’s nothing wrong in making a point, but the way she did it was rather out of place. It had no clear significance to the movie. And how is it that Ida, being a long-time friend of Harith and Mislina’s family, did not know that their Chinese maid was actually a Muslim?
Another point Yasmin made which to me was just plain stupid and did not belong anywhere in a movie that supposedly embraced the Malaysian culture and way of life, was when Pamela Chong and her supposed boyfriend, Mahesh fell asleep next to each other in the family hall of Pamela’s home. When the parents returned from their day-trip to Cameron Highlands to find the kids asleep, Mislina actually commented, “How sweet! Let’s put a blanket over them!” Now which Malaysian family would condone their teenage daughter sleeping next to her teenage boyfriend? And in the family home, no less! Of course no sex was involved but come on! I can almost see myself in that situation, and my mother would definitely wake me up and the boy and in not so many words would tell him to take a hike! I mean Yasmin wanted to portray a liberal Muslim family, who wakes up in the morning to do the Subuh prayers but is ok with a boy falling asleep next to their daughter in their own home. Where on earth is the reality in this scene? This scene will work in a Hollywood movie because their culture is like that, but this is Malaysia for crying out loud! I dare you to take that scene and do a survey in Malaysia, and tell me how many families will actually say “Oh how sweet!” I can safely tell you now, NONE!
However that is not my main problem with the movie. What I found totally ridiculous was the fact that all of the characters were flat characters. None had any actual progressing quality. They were like that when the movie started, and they were still like that when it ended. Whatever happened to round characters? Anyway, perhaps Yasmin really wanted to try something different. So different that it was just plain nonsense.
The mere fact that the movie did not actually have a plot was also pretty disturbing. It was just a collection of little stories which had no resolution whatsoever in the end. It pretty much ladida-ed all the way from the starting right up to the ending. So as I walked out of the movie theatre, I was wondering what the hell happened in the last 2 hours? Was it intentional? Did Yasmin actually wanted to portray nothing? Because if that was the case then the movie can be categorised as a very succesful Absurd. Joining the likes of Beckett and such.
So all in all, I did not enjoy Talentime. I could still go on and on, but I’ve pretty much forgotten the movie, which means I’ve forgotten what I wanted to complain about. During the course of watching, I was already making mental notes of what to jot down in my blog, but it was so forgettable. What I’ve written so far are all that I can remember.
In other words, if you haven’t seen Talentime, don’t!
