Falling in Love Like in Movies (2023) Review

"The romance was all in my head,"

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Contrary to what the title makes you believe, this movie was not a romance. This is a film about a writer who is so determined to move away from writing adapted screenplays that he takes the story of a friend who is grieving her late husband, and believes he is able to make her move on to be with him. Throughout his writing process, he is forced to come to terms with the insensitivity of his actions, and how he has only been considering his own feelings in the situation, and how drastically that effects his filmmaking process. The movie explores so many themes; grief, love, friendship, and the way movies can impact our lives.

Bagus, the writer (played by Rinngo Agus Rahman) refuses to believe that he cannot fix things through his scripts, something that is made clear when tells Hana, the grieving friend ((Nurina Zubir) that movies provide solutions for people. He takes her story of her grief, and changes it into a romance where the two end up together, never once taking time to consider how she hasn't had enough time to move on yet. When she eventually is able to read the script, it causes them to fall out and she tells him that she doesn't want to move on, because she still loves her husband. The exploration of both the characters flaws during this scene was so mesmirising to me, as it is clear Hana will not even allow herself to move on with her life, but Bagus doesn't seem to understand that that is a natural part of the process, and even compares her inability to move on to his romantic fantasies. After the argument, it seems that Bagus continues on with the script and is forced to deal with his grief as the movie gets made, and he begins to realise he was in fact being selfish, to the point that he gives up on the movie and therefore on his dream just to win back the respect of his friend. He realises that the entire time he was focused on her 'false belief', he didn't take into account how he wrongly believed he could change her when it was not his place to do so.

This is when there is a change from black and white to colour, and we are shown a scene of Bagus and Hana talking over his script. We learn that everything up until this colour change was in fact the script, it was a film showing a potential film. Hana expresses her dislike for the unrealistic portrayals of romance, and of herself, and they work together so that she is able to tell her story in her own way.

I've never seen a movie quite like this, and the entire thing is so fascinating to me. The use of a non-linear timeline, confusing the audience as to what is the reality and what is the script, is so similar to how the script-writing process would have affected Bagus' reflection of their friendship and his time with Hana, thus why he found it so difficult to face her and confess his true feelings. Showing the difference between someone who has experienced the loss of love, and someone who is trying to find it still, and how their perceptions of romance and movies conflict was so interesting. As romances are always there to make the love seem more tense, it is important to be reminded that sometimes love is simply just a conversation, no matter how mundane.

Zubir was excellent in this movie, perfectly showing the grief her character feels even if she has no lines. Her eyes tell a story in a way that very few actors can do, and it was mesmerising watching her in each scene. Rahman carried Bagus incredibly well, portraying his flaws through his exhaustion with the filmmaking and his outburst during the restaurant scene being filmed, a scene that I couldn't peel my eyes away from. Yandy Laurens is both an amazing director and writer, and I will definitely be watching more of his work now that I have seen this masterpiece.

Movies like this are so important, showing us how grief remains, and how important it is to consider those around us. Everyone should have the chance to experience this movie, and now that it has been released globally on Netflix, they can!