Something in Between proves that there are rules to high school romance films and it is up to filmmakers to break them or blindly follow them.

High school romance has charted the islands of Indonesian films for a long time. Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? (What’s Up with Cinta?) or Catatan Akhir Sekolah (After School Notes) are some of the examples of our cinema making deliberate concessions to the young, the hopeful and perhaps the naive.

But there has been a spike in interest in high school dramas that contain the following: charismatic, suave male character with all the right words to say and the female character to woo.

A Dilan, the main character of the movie Dilan 1990, gives a lot of cues for Something in Between. And a few months ago, I saw the trailer to the film Raja dan Ratu Rahasia (King and Queen of Secrets), starring Brandon Salim and Aurora Ribero. The movie poster reads: Gemesin di bioskop mulai 12 Juli 2018 (Making theaters cute starting July 12, 2018).

The formula used in the movies above seems like the credo that the movie Something in Between, directed by Asep Kusdinar with a script from Titien Wattimena and Novia Faizal, operates with.

Starring Jefri Nichol and Amanda Rawles (in their fifth on-screen partnership) as Gema/Abi and Maya/Laras respectively, Something in Between is largely a high school drama that retreads the formula that made films like Dilan 1990 successful.

But in doing so, Something in Between does something different.

The story concerns Abi, a student living in London who sketches and spends the entire movie engrossed in his pursuits and is somehow haunted by dreams of a couple professing their undying love. Then he travels back to Jakarta and looks for clues as to who the couple is and why he is haunted by them.

A trip to a high school in Jakarta has Slamet Rahardjo’s headmaster character tell Abi about what happened to two of his students, Gema and Maya.

Like Dilan 1990 or Teman Tapi Menikah (Friends but Married), the movie then transports the audience into a sinless, lightweight romantic drama between Gema and Maya.

Maya rebukes Gema at first — she seems to be in conflict with herself. Gema, however, remains as confident as ever, ready to blurt out empowering, poetic words at a moment’s notice. He also gives Maya a contract she can sign if she wants to be with him and then gets beaten up by a bully who’s into Maya. You know, doing Dilan-esque stuffs.

Then if there’s a scene that really nails that cuteness-overload thing, it’s the one where on Maya’s birthday, Gema takes her to the storefront of a bakery. He asks Maya to pick a cake and once she’s picked the cake, he walks out. Then he lights a candle in between the chosen cake. It’s supposed to be romantic, I guess.

Something in Between gets tiring after a while.

Restless: Jefri Nicol plays Abi, a student living in London who is haunted by dreams of a couple and their undying love.

Though competently acted by Jefri and Amanda, the Gema and Maya story takes up a hefty space and perhaps one of the few redeeming qualities in the movie is the dynamic between Maya and her parents, who cannot let go of their child. It gets tiring because you already expect the reaction that the movie tries to elicit; laughter over the cuteness of the kids, the charming words from Gema. Nothing sticks, though.

In theory, it is exciting to bookend the movie with the stories of Abi and Laras, who resemble Gema and Maya. It’s not necessary to spoil the movie as to how they are connected, but even both the build-up — why does Abi keep having those nightmares? And the payoff feels tossed in, like a bow lazily wrapped around a present.

The laughter in the theater signals that perhaps there are many people who are into these types of movies. So, it is unfortunate that opportunities to make films like Something in Between were spent on a regurgitation of the genre.

Don’t fix it: Something in Between uses a similar formula to that of Dilan 1990 to deliver a high-school romance flick.

— Photos courtesy of Screenplay Productions

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Something in Between

(100 minutes; Screenplay Films, Legacy Pictures)
Director: Asep Kusdinar
Cast: Jefri Nichol, Amanda Rawles, Slamet Rahardjo, Naufal Samudra, Junior Liem, Surya Saputra, Djenar Maesa Ayu