Movie adapted from novel, Perahu Kertas or literally means Paper Boat is one of the movies Indonesians have had on their waiting list of movie to see. The novel, written by Dewi Lestari or Dee, a famous Indonesian novelist is very famous among the writer’s fans and general readers. I have read the novel too and truthfully I got amazed by the way she tells the story. Perahu Kertas is a romantic novel which can leave the corny part any novel with the same genre can come up with. Pretty much I love the novel, so I kind of wait for the movie too. Hanung Bramantyo, a productive director who creates both popular and idealistic movies, sticks to the director position while the casts are Maudy Ayunda, Adipati Dolken and Reza Rahadian. I never really know how the two first names act because I have just heard Ayunda sang, although she also has acted in some other movies and Dolken, I’ve just never known anything about him yet. But I put hope on Rahadian, whose acting had been proven. Though he played a role that only come for a while here.
Kugy likes to write fairytale and draws the character herself, although she is bad in drawing. She also writes letter, which is actually a short diary, to the Neptune through a paper boat she floats on the gut. She studies literature in university and then meets Keenan, a boy who has just moved from Netherlands. He likes to paint but he comes to substitute his father position in the family company, he studies economy for the sake of his father. They become friends and Kugy even spreads the Neptune thing to him, which he accepts just fine and happily, unlike her boyfriend who thinks that her Neptune is just her oddity. Kugy starts to like him but she doesn’t want to change the friendship. It is torturing her and making her avoid him and the rest of her friends. She meets her brother’s friend who becomes her boss and slowly her lover too. She doesn’t love him but she thinks he is the perfect reality she should try to love. In the other place, Keenan also starts a relationship with a Balinese girl he meets during his stay to learn more about painting from someone he loves and just never known what past he had with him. Whatever, they are just bound to meet again.
The synopsis is not everything, there are many more people involved and played contributing roles. If I want to compare, the movie has lost so many details from the book and even created things that never exist on the book. But full stop, I no longer want to compare two different mediums. Book is where I enjoy each words and sentences, movie is about how story told in motion. This movie actually has two parts, released in different time of the same year, but I will just make one review since it is not a sequel just a one movie split into two.
The best acting still goes to the more senior actor like Reza Rahadian, August Melasz and Tio Pakusadewo. One of the soundtrack keeps popping in my mind like I listen to it all the time. I love the unique character Kugy has and love the screenwriter and director not to try changing her. But somehow, a few scenes make it looks like Indonesian soap opera because the actors that fill the role often play in one. To think in critical way and as a supporter of one certain couple, I objected how the story ends, Kugy or Keenan just don’t defend or try pursuing their love anyhow. They stay and start to enjoy their life but other parties reveal things, other parties discover things. That’s all that. They do what? Nothing. Okay, it’s about just finding each other wherever, if I want to think even farther. There is no certain art in cinematography this movie has that impressed me. But the sound and how the opening appears, with Kugy on the boat, in the middle of the sea, just make me long for beach. Well, I haven’t seen beach with my own eyes for very long.
The Scribbles 