When "Eyyvah eyvah" hit the theaters in early march a lot people were of the opinion that that it was one of the best recent comedies and the same people were comparing it with the latest Ivedik movie. I wasn't able to see the movie in the theaters back then but I have wondered whether it was a movie that could be compared to Recep Ivedik. In my humble opinion such a comparison is not exactly fair. Recep Ivedik is the ultimate the quintessence of quaintness. No matter how uncultivated,indelicate and aggressive he seems, the people saw a spark of resemblance in him to the members of the society they lived in. Eyyvah eyvah is Ata Demirer's first scenario. As one of the most popular stand-up comedians in Turkey,he is associated with comedy. He is mostly famous for his celebrity impressions. Demirer plays the clarinet player Hüseyin Badem this time.Living with his grandparents in Çanakkale, a seaport on the coast of the Dardanelles, Hüseyin seeks joie de vivre in his penchant for clarinet and his romantic feelings for the nurse Müjgan (Özge Borak.) One day he happens top find a letter in his grandmother's trunk. The letter is addressed to her late mother from his father. When he realizes that his grandparents lied to him about his father, he ends up in Istanbul to find his father. The only one he knows in Istanbul is his family acquaintance Ramiz(Bican Günalan)who is a dressmaker for the nightclub performer Firuzan (Demet Akbağ). When Hüseyin meets Firuzan, a series of comical actions ensue.
Hakan Algül's movie is as fun as it gets. The acting in the movie and the chemistry between Demirer and Akbağ are just fine but the Turkish cinema should just give up on its old habits. The scenario that Demirer wrote is heavily formulaic and predictably structured. How many times have we seen orphan boys who take a wow to find their long-lost fathers? How many times have we seen mothers who hide their pregnancy from the men they love? It has been done many times over and over again and it's just not that. When Hüseyin meets Firuzan, you can guess from the get-go that he will play in Firuzan's team. The pure predictability is the basic impediment for a comedy to reach its full potential. If all the dialogs except the witty parts in a comedy sound just cut-and-dried,you can't prevent it from being contrived and formulaic. Take Ivedik, for instance. No matter how uncultivated and risqué it is,one of the reasons why it did better at the box-office(than at least some fifty Turkish movies) is because of the unplanned,uncalculated and spontaneous nature of the comedy. Eyyvah eyvah sounds witty,funny and entertainingly,strikingly clever at some points but the rest of the movie sounds just ordinary,like some commonplace comedy based on deliberately predictable,clumsy actions and humorously embarrassing events.
Hakan Algül's movie is as fun as it gets. The acting in the movie and the chemistry between Demirer and Akbağ are just fine but the Turkish cinema should just give up on its old habits. The scenario that Demirer wrote is heavily formulaic and predictably structured. How many times have we seen orphan boys who take a wow to find their long-lost fathers? How many times have we seen mothers who hide their pregnancy from the men they love? It has been done many times over and over again and it's just not that. When Hüseyin meets Firuzan, you can guess from the get-go that he will play in Firuzan's team. The pure predictability is the basic impediment for a comedy to reach its full potential. If all the dialogs except the witty parts in a comedy sound just cut-and-dried,you can't prevent it from being contrived and formulaic. Take Ivedik, for instance. No matter how uncultivated and risqué it is,one of the reasons why it did better at the box-office(than at least some fifty Turkish movies) is because of the unplanned,uncalculated and spontaneous nature of the comedy. Eyyvah eyvah sounds witty,funny and entertainingly,strikingly clever at some points but the rest of the movie sounds just ordinary,like some commonplace comedy based on deliberately predictable,clumsy actions and humorously embarrassing events.