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Jakarta Post

Garuda soars after a clunky take-off

Several things can make you fidget uncomfortably a few minutes into Garuda di Dadaku (which literally means Garuda, Indonesia's national emblem, on my chest)

Rizal Iwan (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sun, June 28, 2009

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Garuda soars after a clunky take-off

Several things can make you fidget uncomfortably a few minutes into Garuda di Dadaku (which literally means Garuda, Indonesia's national emblem, on my chest). The effusively nationalistic title - taken from the spirit-rousing hymn echoed in every game that the Indonesian national football team plays - might resonate to football enthusiasts, but to some it just makes them brace anxiously for a preachy, message-laden film.

Not only does the more than subtle product placement from a major sponsor, a kid shampoo brand, distract the viewer throughout one scene, but - call me paranoid - the actors also seem to resemble the models used in the product's advertisement: a kid with beautiful hair and a mother with beautiful hair. It makes you wonder if the shampoo company actually had a say in the casting. Thank God, Emir Mahira in the lead shatters this preconception by showcasing a serious knack for football and acting later in the film, giving the most consistent performance.

Something doesn't feel quite right about the "against-all-odds" premise, either. A boy with a steadfast passion for football encounters opposition from his grandfather, who wants him to learn painting and music instead? A parent favoring arts over football? Geez, Billy Elliot would be green with envy.

We soon learn the grandfather (Ikranagara) is traumatized by his late son's unfortunate fate as a budding football player unable to make a decent living (to which we'd coo, "And being a painter makes you an instant millionaire?"). He does whatever he can to keep his grandson from falling into the same trap. However, it doesn't save us from the much too in-your-face plea for a case (the grandfather gives the boy a suit as a birthday present, calling it "the outfit for success" and repeatedly says, "I want you to be a successful man!") and a dab of sinetron-esque acting from some of the cast.

Anyway, Bayu, the boy, nurtures the passion he inherits from his father and dreams of making it to the national junior team. He actually has a chance to do so when a coach (Ari Sihasale) spots his talent and offers him a scholarship to his football club, which makes him eligible for the national team tryouts. With the help of his best friend, Heri (Aldo Tansani), and Heri's jolly driver, Bang Dulloh (Ramzi), Bayu tries to maneuver his way around his grandfather in order to keep practicing.

The aforementioned small flaws make for a clunky half of the film. The audience watches in a kind of a tense state because the film seems to still search for a tone. The only relief comes from Ramzi. Although his driver character serves no significant purpose, he helps lighten up the mood, especially when the two boys are still trying to get comfortable in their roles.

It is not until almost halfway through the movie that the film starts to ease up, when the boys find a cemetery for Bayu to practice. A new character is introduced: Zahra (Marsha Aruan), a creepy cemetery girl who agrees to let them practice there if they help her clean the premises. Her entrance is one of the film's funniest scenes, which somehow destroys the barrier between the audience and the film. From there, we laugh more often at the jokes (most of them involving the cemetery), and Ikranagara and Aldo - who tended to overact in the film's earlier part - shift into more grounded performances. The plot seems to flow better.

Above all, the audience can relax because the preachy, patriotic propaganda that the title suggested in the beginning shows no sign of surfacing. Instead, the film is more of a personal story of not only holding on to your dream, but also questioning that dream when you know what you're going to lose in order to get it.

The script is especially strong when it comes to characters. Heri's character - a boy with an unrivaled obsession for football but with no physical ability to match it - is the most interesting character because he defies all kid film stereotypes (rich but not snobbish, in a wheelchair but with a more than healthy dose of self-confidence). And it's all the more interesting because his motive might not be purely altruistic. Zahra's character also adds colors - isolation turned into creepiness - although Marsha in the role is a bit miscast: She's too pretty and recites her lines instead of saying them.

Plot-wise, though, it is debatable whether the film could have been more heartfelt if the script hadn't brought the story as far as it did, and instead, just focused on a resolution between Bayu and his grandfather. But then again, that wouldn't please the crowd as much (they took the same path in Billy Elliot). The good thing that comes out of the movie is that it gives first-time feature director Ifa Isfansyah the space to showcase an exhilaratingly composed football sequence. Thankfully, Ifa didn't succumb to the expected "burst of victory" moment, and instead did a classy skip to a beautifully shot closing scene that cements the victory even deeper and reverberates the emotion in the film's title.

As far as crowd-pleasing children entertainment goes, albeit with a less than steady take-off, Garuda manages to soar and secures a smooth landing on its audience's hearts.

 

 

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