Change Your Image
priandi
Reviews
The Sinking of Van Der Wijck (2013)
A soap-opera-styled movie (film sinetron), falling short of proving itself worthy of Hamka's masterpiece
I watched the movie, expecting to see a decent adaptation of the famous novel. To be fair, I'd begin with the high points of the movie. Good performance by extras, specifically those playing the parts of Hayati's family. All scenes involving Hayati's mamak (uncle) brought me back to my parents' village near Bukittinggi, West Sumatera. I suspect those extras are mostly indeed Minang people, As the matter of fact, they are the closest thing to portrayal authenticity of all the characters in the movie. Kudos for them, which are ironically not included in cast list in IMDB. At the very least, Hayati's mamak deserves to be credited.
The second nice thing I can say about this movie is its pictorial of Minang landscape. Although, the credit here is not entirely on the director as the landscape is already beautiful. In some shots, I even feel as if they look slightly unreal especially with the soft look and deep colour saturation. While I think this is more due to the director's preferred approach and style, I cannot help thinking as if I was watching an old music video by Rizal Mantovani (which also happens to be involved in this movie). Those who spent their teenage years in the 90s watching Rizal Mantovani's music videos would know what I mean. (clue: lots of high saturated colour)
Acting wise, I appreciate the effort of Herjunot, Pevita, and Reza, the three main characters in the movie. I like Herjunot's portrayal of a young man growing up in Makassar, and his accent is very convincing. However, I find it difficult to say the same for Reza and Pevita. I can forgive Reza's character as having too much Dutch influence, so much that his Minang accent is nowhere to be heard. Pevita's character is a woman who grew up in a village within a Minang community with strong cultural influence, and yet her accent is very thin at the beginning of the movie and rapidly fading away as the movie progresses. Again, I see good acting performance from those outside the main characters, as Jajang C. Noer and particularly Arzetti Bilbina played their characters very well. Even Arzetti's character is a typical middle-aged Minang woman, down to her appearance and accent. Too bad, both of them did not get a lot of screen time, and almost have very minor significance in the storytelling of the movie.
The last positive thing I can say about the movie is the material itself. When a line or a scene is faithfully taken from Buya Hamka's book, the scene makes sense and very moving to watch. For example, the scene where Hayati come to visit Zainuddin who is sick in bed, where Muluk talk to Zainuddin to build up his spirit, or Hayati's final letter.
As with other movies that are adaptation of a book, it is always a challenge to adapt the material faithfully and even successfully. The visualization of adaptation material in this movie is, unfortunately, cheesy and unrealistic. There are many scenes in which I feel like the director ignores logic, or at least did not provide a convincing scene as background or explanation. The most obvious example is the pictorial of Zainuddin's house as a very big mansion with many candle lights, a big dinner table, complete with butler and housekeepers. The portrayal of Zainuddin, as a pribumi (indigenous people) living in 1930s Surabaya under Dutch occupation, is the most disturbing aspect of the movie. Zainuddin's dress is also almost too flamboyant for a humble-writer-turn-successful-businessman. It makes me feel like watching a movie version of a soap opera with a setting of Indonesia in the 1970s. And no thanks to controversial choice of music arrangement. I like Nidji, but does it have to come in every now and then? Their sound definitely does not belong to the 1930s setting.
Now, I am aware that different people can see things differently, and I respect their right to express their reviews here. However, seeing a couple reviews of this film here using hyperbolic expressions makes me wonder if they are writing about a completely different movie. The Sinking of Van Der Wijck has a few good points, and it is not a total disaster. But to think of it as deserving a 10/10 rating, to be referred as "the very best Indonesian cinema", "an instant classic", with "standout characterization", "first-class technical aspects", and "excellent period set pieces", or even "a complete package" of "superb entertainment" is just plain deceiving and on the verge of degrading critically acclaimed movies like "Naga Bonar" or "Laskar Pelangi". "The Sinking of Van Der Wijck" may be the Indonesian movie that sold the most tickets and commercially successful, but definitely does not deserve to be called the best of Indonesian movies.