Customer Reviews

Arisan! (The Gathering)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Arisan! is telling us about three people whose befriend since their in high school. Now, in their thirty something age, they are supposedly mature enough to gain their own personal life. They are good looking, success, rich and happy, or aren't they? Memey (Cut Mini) is a successful business woman and marrying a handsome and successful husband. Her friend Sakti (Tora Sudiro) is her co-worker and state as an eligible bachelor. Meanwhile Andien (Aida Nurmala) is a devoted housewife to her twice older husband and her children. Their life seems perfect, until when they join a social gathering call Arisan, their secret is unfolded and their friendship is at a risk.

Arisan! is a satire about "A" class society and hypocritical that used to veil their life. The direction form Nia DiNata is a first class. The plot is build well and the progress of the characters development is stunning. Both comedy and drama are sufficient enough and the photography is subtle and contributing much for the whole film. The mood is constant on the track to make this a truly winner, both as an entertain package and social critique. The one thing nuisance me that Arisan! is running on a slow pace, but at least it doesn't make a big bother.

If you just looking for a simple entertainer, you may think twice to watch Arisan!, but is very recommended to whose want to enjoy a good picture with quality and absolutely not a B-rate movie.

ARISAN (The Gathering) is a fine little story about the ins and outs of Jakarta's wealthy class - sort of an Indonesian Beverly Hills 90210/Melrose Place sitcom. The characters include frustrated wives, jealous wives, career women, cheating husbands, man-hunter girls, and two gay men - one closeted and one open. The film explores the social dictates of society and the jumbled events that occur when family or friends try to match make.

The cast is young and attractive and handles the material well. The problem with the film is the emphasis on clothes, fancy homes, cars, and all the trappings of the wealthy class. An 'arisan' is a gathering where friends come together, pitch in $100. each and pass the hostessing around to various locales where their main conversation is fairly shallow gossiping. But this film, though drowning in the over-the-top trappings, has many sensitive issues well discussed and played. For a film from Indonesia it is a terrific change from the usual horror flicks that originate from their studios and as such bodes well for a new movie industry that obviously has the ability to become important. It is funny, tender, very colorful and entertaining: some judicious editing could have pared this overly long movie into a fine little film. In Indonesian and English with subtitles. Grady Harp, September 05

Where's the "0" star rating when you really need it?

Bad acting, aimless direction, impossible to decipher soundtrack (thankfully we get subtitles for the dialogue), and worst of all, a premise that might--might--have worked in 1975, but hardly 2005. In short, the story concerns Why It's Okay to Be Gay. Duh. Throw in some absurdly unbelieveable bit characters in the fashion of a sitcom's B-story line and there you are: A Total Waste of Time. I've had more fun watching rocks erode.

Avoid.

This romatic comedy about a group of privildeged yuppie types in Indonesia is way too long and meanders its way toward a fairly forgettable and anti-climatic ending. Although this is being pitched in some circles as having a "gay" storyline, it really is not a gay film at all. Two of the primary characters are gay, but they are only two of a fairly large ensemble cast that constantly moves from the priviledged angst of one character to the priviledged and totally unengaging angst of another.

I found this film interesting as a sort of socio-economic time capsule of Indonesia, a country that many in the West view as "third-world." There was nothing third-world about the characters in this film or the oppulent lives they live. In fact, their very conspicuous trappings of wealth were quite fascinating (almost as if they were desperately trying to emulate the privileged of the United States or certain people of European means).

As a work of art, this film was nothing more than meaningless fluff.