“Men fall in love to what they see, women fall in love to what they hear.”
I know I didn’t post my most anticipated films in 2013, but What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love (2013) (original title : Yang Tidak Dibicarakan Ketika Membicarakan Cinta) is one of them. Don’t Talk Love is an Indonesian movie directed by Mouly Surya (previously directed Fiksi) and this movie is the first Indonesian movie to enter Sundance Film Festival. Knowing that this movie is on the cinemas starting last Thursday, I rushed to see it before they pull it down (you never know).
Love stories are probably the most common theme ever made on screenplay or movies. I have seen plenty of them (not all of them), on many genres. Some end happy, while others aren’t. But what they have all in common is they show what we do while we’re in love. Don’t Talk Love tells about visually impaired teens being in love. There’s Diana (Karina Salim), who isn’t blind but only capable to see things few inch in front of her eyes. She has a crush on a blind boy who always wear a cap, Andhika (Anggun Priambodo). She even buy herself a perfume that boy recognizes in order to get his attention.
Diana friends with Fitri (Ayushita Nugraha), who is blind, have a boyfriend outside their special boarding school. One time, Edo (Nicholas Saputra), a punk son of the lady who runs a small cafetaria in school, caught Fitri and her boyfriend in a room together. Edo follows Fitri’s activity after that and they both ‘meet’ mostly at night until morning.
What special about Don’t Talk Love is seeing these teens act towards their love interest, their pure actions are far from anything other than pursuing their love. Perhaps it didn’t have the best pacing, mostly because that is the pacing these kids experience in their daily life. And their limitations makes their actions slower than average people. But aside all of that, they have the same passion and desire. You couldn’t expect anything more about love twists because the plot is actually pretty simple.
What I like from this movie is how it showed naivity on expressing feelings and passion, no games and no manipulation. Well, the only manipulation in it was Edo dressing as a doctor when meeting Fitri every night. Their passion is the spiciest act in the movie. While Diana is the best on showing her pure feelings to Andhika. I loved Karina Salim’s performance, she can perform empty and naïve feelings of a girl (which isn’t easy to act sometimes), very excited to be a woman. Fitri was more open and easygoing.
There were parts who felt unattached to the movie, without any clear understanding why they were there. Perhaps they were there as a glympse of their lives outside their teen phase. This isn’t one of those movies everyone could enjoy. It certainly felt poetic and sweet, and unafraid to be simple as it is. It’s nice to see Nicholas Saputra on screen again. I also loved the music scoring, by Zeke Khaseli. I do wish Don’t Talk Love could have more extended story, but perhaps it is what is is. But if you ask me if this movie is different, I would say yes.
