Nur Kasih: The Movie - Nur Yang Tak Cukup Terang Lagi

Dah lama saya menunggu filem baru dari Kabir Bhatia. Filem arahannya Setem adalah filem tempatan pertama yang saya benar-benar sukai, tapi itu dah hampir dua tahun lalu. Sebenarnya saya tak paham kenapa Setem tidak berjaya di box-office. Takde ke seorang pun antara mereka yang cakap dengan kengkawan, "Citer nie best, pergi tengok"? Jadi saya amat mengantisipasikan filem Kabir yang seterusnya, walaupun ia merupakan sambungan kepada siri TV yang saya tak tahu apa-apa mengenainya.

Malangnya, filem ini tak ada apa-apa yang buat saya teruja macamSetem.

Adam (Remy Ishak) dan Aidil (Fizz Fairuz) adalah dua adik-beradik. Ibu mereka ialah Mak Jah (Liza Othman). Adam suami kepada Nur Amina (Tiz Zaqyah) yang pernah juga dicintai oleh Aidil (I think). Aidil baru kehilangan isterinya yang telah meninggal dunia, meninggalkan dia bersama dua anaknya Elyas (Ilyas Suhaimi) dan Mariam (Mia Sara Nasuha). Kemudian Nur mengandung, tetapi tragedi menimpa apabila kandungannya gugur. Untuk menawar rasa kepahitan, Adam dan Nur melancong ke Jordan, tetapi mereka terlibat dalam kemalangan keretapi terbabas. Mereka berdua terselamat, tetapi apabila Adam pulang ke tempat kemalangan untuk mencari cincin Nur yang tercicir, dia tersesat di padang pasir. Nur dan Aidil berjaya mencarinya, tetapi Adam mengalami kecederaan yang mengancam nyawanya. Juga ada subplot tentang Adam mengajar kelas agama bagi remaja yang bermasalah, termasuk Mamat (Muniff Isa), Juriah (Sara Ali) dan Jamal (Syafie Naswip).

Dari sinopsis di atas, anda dah boleh tahu apa masalahnya dengan filem ini. Saya menggelarnya "cerita pastu" - kerana plotnya macam "ini terjadi, pastu itu terjadi, pastu ini terjadi, pastu itu terjadi, pastu etc. etc. etc." Tiada benang naratif yang mengikat cerita ini dari mula sampai akhir. Segala tragedi yang melanda watak-watak ini macam saja je. Ini cukup membingungkan saya, lebih-lebih lagi kerana filem ini tidak menyenangkan penonton yang tidak kenal dengan siri TV Nur Kasih. Teks kat mula-mula tidak banyak membantu untuk menerangkan sejarah watak-watak ini. Benarkah Adam, Aidil dan Nur pernah bercinta tigasegi? Tak nampak pun. Tiga-tiga macam baik-baik je.

Sebenarnya itu salah satu benda yang saya suka. Semua ahli famili ini saling sayang-menyayangi; tiada konflik diantara dua-dua adik beradik, mahupun antara suami isteri atau abang ipar dan adik ipar. Melainkan satu watak antagonis yang minor, hampir kesemua watak-watak dalam cerita ini boleh disimpati mahupun disanjungi. Konflik didalam filem ini selebihnya datang dari pancaroba kehidupan watak-watak ini - dan ini membawa kita kepada tema cerita ini, iaitu keredaan kepada kehendak Allah.

Dari sini, filem ini akan menunjukkan betapa berharganya iman. Malangnya, filem Melayu - dan masyarakat Melayu - belum berani lagi untuk mengkaji erti keimanan dengan lebih mendalam. Sebenarnya filem Barat lebih memahami isu ini; satu lagi contoh ialah filem Signs arahan M. Night Shyamalan. Tapi saya suka babak dimana seorang ustaz (lakonan Beto Kushairy) dilihat sebagai kolot pemikirannya dan kurang berperikemanusiaan; namun ini diimbang dengan babak lain dimana seorang pengusaha Melayu (lakonan Jehan Miskin, yang saya kasihan kerana tak pernah membawa watak orang yang baik) mahu menubuhkan kelab malam. Of course, dia dilihat sebagai seorang asshole.

Filem ini sentiasa nampak kemas dan berkualiti. Arahan Kabir teliti dan prihatin, dan skrip Mira adakalanya corny tetapi cukup bermakna. Lakonan Tiz Zaqyah cukup efektif dalam babak pasang air (i.e. turning on the waterworks), tapi saya lebih suka ketika dia bertekad hendak mencari suaminya yang hilang; ini satu-satunya ketika kita lihat watak yang aktif melakukan sesuatu. Pelakon-pelakon lelaki pula kurang menyerlah dan agak kayu; anehnya, Remy Ishak kurang chemistry dengan Tiz. Ingat mereka dah biasa memainkan watak-watak ini. Saya juga suka dengan Muniff Isa, manakala Sara Ali tetap kiut gilebabi.

Dukacita saya mengatakan bahawa ada persamaan diantara filem ini dengan Lagenda Budak Setan, yang juga mengamalkan polisi "lagi watak derita lagi menghiburkan" sampai tahap 11. Dukacita kerana Nur Kasih: The Movie tampak lagi baik (tahap 6 atau 7 je), tak macam filem taik itu. Ia bercita-cita hendak menceritakan kisah drama epik tiga insan dan erti kehidupan mereka hingga akhir hayat, tapi kurang berjaya akibat plot yang episodik dan bercelaru. (Dan kalau nak tiru filem "The Notebook" pun biarlah dari memula.) Cubaan yang boleh dihormati, tetapi saya lebih gembira bahawa saga Nur Kasih sudah tamat disini. Bolehlah Kabir - serta Mira - bikin cerita yang seharapnya lebih baik.

Review: 2.5 Stars

Next Review: Kung Fu Panda 2

Paul - Alien Fart And Probing Jokes Galore

I loved Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. I love movies that can pull off the tricky trifecta of mocking a genre, yet show boundless affection for it, and be a solid entry in that genre in its own right. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost - and their frequent collaborator, Edgar Wright - are acknowledged masters of this, and I'll watch anything they make. Paul, their latest, is massively entertaining, and the movie produced the best laughs I've had at the movies in a long time.

Graeme Willy (Simon Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Nick Frost) are two British sci-fi fanboys who have come to America to visit San Diego Comic-Con first, and take an RV road trip tour through the Midwest's most famous UFO sites second. But while on the road, they encounter Paul (voice of Seth Rogen) - rude, uncouth, cigarette-smoking, weed-toking, and also an alien. Paul has just escaped from government custody, and needs Graeme's and Clive's help to make it to a place where his people can take him home. On the way, they also pick up Ruth Buggs (Kristen Wiig), a fundamentalist Christian whose worldview is changed shattered by Paul, but this only makes Ruth's domineering father (John Carroll Lynch) pursue them with a vengeance and a shotgun. Also hot on Paul's tail is the ruthless Agent Zoil (Jason Bateman) - supposedly-aided-but-more-often-hindered by two other bumbling operatives (Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio) - whose superior (Sigourney Weaver) doesn't much care if Paul returns dead or alive.

Malaysian audiences are shamefully ignorant. Oh no, it's not because the audience at my viewing didn't enjoy this movie; they did, uproariously. It's because this movie is dense with in-jokes and references to a dozen other classic sci-fi films, and almost every onesailed over their heads. Mac And Me. The song playing in the redneck bar. "Boring conversation anyway." And an absolutely delicious one aimed at Sigourney Weaver which it would be criminal of me to spoil. I was literally the only one laughing at these, but I'm pretty sure there were even more jokes that I missed. Just those ones I mentioned above were awesome enough.

Yes, as befits a movie about two sci-fi geeks made by two sci-fi geeks, Paul is chock-full of sci-fi geekery. And yet it remains accessible and entertaining for non-geeks, because as I said, even the audience I watched it with had a great time. The dialogue is hilariously vulgar, which is possibly still a new thing to Malaysian moviegoers. (If you're still not aware yet, rated 18 now means profanity is completely uncensored.) As writers, Pegg and Frost display a mastery of the running gag that should be the envy of comedy writers everywhere. As actors, they have no problems playing likable characters, and Frost's Clive even gets a little more dimension than the one-note clueless morons he played in Shaun and Fuzz. And just like those two films, this one takes care to tell a real story, not just a string of jokes.

It's probably not the tightest story though, being a road movie after all. Somewhere in its second half, they pick up yet another character, Tara Walton (Blythe Danner), and her subplot is perhaps not as well-developed as it deserves. But it is warm and touching, which is another thing about the movie that I liked. He may be voiced by Seth Rogen, and he may practically be a typical Seth Rogen character, but Paul is more than just another slacker/party animal/asshole/mainstay of many a modern American comedy. He develops a real warmth for his new human friends, has a conscience and a desire to make right his mistakes, and his loutish behaviour never becomes dickish or causes lazy plot complications. As much as you may dislike Rogen or Rogen-ish characters, Paul is always more than that.

That's probably because two Brits wrote it. In many ways, this movie is also an outsider's view of America, as seen by two foreigners and one literal alien. It takes potshots at drunken rednecks and Christian fundies, and I've read a fair bit of huffing about this from butthurt Americans. Suck it up, I'd say to them; Hollywood has done more than its fair share of insulting portrayals of other countries and cultures, it's time to taste some of it yourselves. In any case, I thought it was freakin' funny.

I thought the whole damn movie was freakin' funny, and that ought to be as good a recommendation as any. Y'know, thinking about it, perhaps it is the weakest Pegg-Frost movie thus far. I'm remembering how Shaun's and Fuzz's jokes were more sly and sophisticated, whereas this movie tends to cover the same comic ground in a more obvious manner. And I also think it'd be niggardly to pronounce this a lesser film when it is already so terrifically entertaining. Because it is.

Rating: 4/5 stars
Next Movie Review: Nur Kasih The Movie

The Social Network - I LIKE it

I don't even remember when I first signed up on Facebook. My first experience with social networking sites was Friendster, and back then its only novelty was comparing the number of friends you had with other people. That was only about 6 years ago - and now, I am a quite frequent Facebook user. (I haven't touched my Friendster account in ages.) I rarely update my status, but I enjoy reading my friends. So yeah, The Social Networkis as relevant to me as, well, any of its other 500 million users worldwide.

After a bad breakup with his girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara), Harvard undergrad Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) channels his resentment into creating a nasty website called Facemash that hacks into the databases of Harvard dorms - and which creates enough traffic to crash the network. It earns him 6 months academic probation, but also the attention of wealthy twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer) and their friend Divya Narendra (Max Minghella), who recruit him to build their own website called HarvardConnection. Instead, Zuckerberg builds on their idea to start his own project - called TheFacebook - with his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), whom he appoints as Chief Financial Officer. TheFacebook becomes wildly popular - Andrew starts dating a groupie named Christy (Brenda Song) - and in their efforts to grow the business, they meet Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), co-founder of Napster, who drives a rift in between Zuckerberg and Saverin. It all ends in lawsuits brought against Zuckerberg by the Winklevosses and Narendra, who believe Zuckerberg stole their idea - and by Saverin, who believes he betrayed their friendship.

This is an incredibly timely movie, perhaps as timely as a film could possibly be, and for that reason many people will want it to be many things - but it isn't most of those things. It is not a business parable of how Facebook came to be a billion-dollar corporation and the world's most influential social network site, overtaking Myspace and Friendster, who were in existence before it. It is not about how it changed the way we interact socially, how it made us "live on the internet", as one character puts it. And it is not really an accurate dramatization of the legal squabbles involving the real-life Zuckerberg, the real-life Winklevosses and Narendra, and the real-life Saverin; it is based on the nonfiction book The Accidental Billionaires that was written in consultation with Saverin, but not Zuckerberg. What it is, is a character portrait of an incredibly complex, wildly successful, and ultimately tragic figure - who in this story just happens to be named Mark Zuckerberg.

I like Aaron Sorkin. I also used to really like David Fincher, and count Se7en and Fight Club among my all-time favourites; it's just that I liked him for his visual style, which he has since toned down for movies like Zodiac and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. These two have never worked together before, but the prospect of Fincher directing a Sorkin screenplay was much more enticing to me than a movie about Facebook. Sorkin is brilliant at characterization and unmatched at dialogue, and that's evident from the very first scene - a dizzyingly rapid-fire exchange between Zuckerberg and his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend that's a joy to listen to, even if it takes an effort to follow. That's Sorkin's trademark, and the movie is full of scenes like this.

It is also in this scene that establishes Zuckerberg's defining trait: that he is an asshole. But he is, as mentioned, an incredibly complex and multi-faceted asshole. He may have become the world's youngest billionaire in just a couple of years, but the trappings of money and fame mean little to him; he never throws his wealth around or indulges in sex with groupies. Yes, it was a petty and mean-spirited act that started him on the path that led to Facebook, and he pretty much stays that self-centered and insecure throughout. But the film leaves ambiguous whether or not he deliberately knifed Saverin and the Winklevosses - and one other person, at the end - in the back; it's possible that his only real sin was to get too caught up in his work to think of his friends. Even if he was guilty of malice aforethought, Jesse Eisenberg's flawless performance makes him someone who knows what it cost him and genuinely regrets it. Also, he is supremely arrogant - which is not a positive character trait, but it does mean he gets some hilarious Sorkin-penned insults that almost make you root for him.

But it is Saverin who's the most sympathetic character here. The film establishes upfront that he's the best friend a guy like Zuckerberg could possibly have, a friend whom Zuckerberg often takes for granted. He is also the guy who had the absolute wrong vision for Facebook, which makes you feel even more for him that history has pretty much left him behind. On the other hand, the charismatic Sean Parker strikes Zuckerberg as a kindred spirit almost immediately; in a later scene, we realize why, when Parker reveals that he started Napster to get back at a girl who dumped him too. The storyline also frequently returns to the Winklevosses (or "Winklevii", as Zuckerberg derogatively calls them), and even makes them look sympathetic - as sympathetic as two born-rich, entitled, blonde-and-blue-eyed Aryan hunks could be. Unlike with Saverin, it's much more clear-cut that Zuckerberg deliberately screwed them over, which they didn't really deserve. And it's pretty impressive that they emerge as two distinct individuals despite being played by the same actor.

I've hardly mentioned Fincher's direction, which plays a big part in making this film a compelling and never boring watch. There's little opportunity for him to employ his former visual trickery, but he nevertheless gives it a propulsive pace. And there's two scenes that are pretty dazzling - Zuckerberg's late-night coding binge that created Facemash, intercut with a wild Harvard final club party that he wanted so much to get into; and a rowing race that the Winklevosses take part in, the outcome of which is a stunning contrast to an earlier practice scene. But it's the plot, the storyline, and Sorkin's writing that really make this movie shine for me. A script like this can make any actor look good, and while Eisenberg's performance is the most conspicuous, there's not a single bad performance here. Andrew Garfield is a paragon of decency; Justin Timberlake is magnetic, although his greatest achievement may be to make you believe Garfield can beat him up; and Armie Hammer, as mentioned, does a pretty damn impressive job at his dual role.

It's a story of great human achievement as well as the most fundamental human weaknesses (and not just Zuckerberg's; one key factor in how things worked out the way they did is Saverin's dislike of Parker, and it's clearly hinted that this was motivated by jealousy), and how intertwined both are. No, it's not really about Facebook, but just as well if people think it is. If the average undiscerning moviegoer, who'd rather watch sparkly vampires or explosions, goes to watch this thinking it's about their favourite website, what they'll get instead is a Sorkin-written, Fincher-directed, complex character study. In other words, they'll get a superbly written, acted, and directed film.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Next Movie Review: Paul