Thursday, February 23, 2023

Berbalas Kejam - A Dark Thriller Drama with Quality Performance from Reza Rahadian

I have been meaning to watch this movie after it was released on Prime Video last week, but due to various reasons, I only managed to do so last night. I was intrigued by the premise, even though it might have been a bit too detailed explained in the synopsis. Anyway, I will get right to it now.

Brief Story Line

Adam (Reza Rahadian - Sri Asih, Seperti Dendam, Rindu Harus Dibayar Tuntas etc) was a successful architect who suffered traumatic event when he witnessed his own family murdered two years earlier. As he was still caught up in the incident and unable to perform his work, Adam was suggested to see the psychiatrist Dr. Amanda (Laura Basuki - Cek Toko Sebelah 2, Susi Susanti: Love All etc).

Somehow Adam got the chance to find the persons responsible for the killing of his family, and he was suddenly caught in his desire for revenge.

So what would happen to Adam? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

As I said above, I was interested to give this a try as the synopsis seemed to have a lot of promise. Revenge stories do have an appeal to me as they usually give some kind of hope that justice would prevail to the victim and the satisfaction of seeing the bad guys got what they deserved. In this movie, the focus was on Adam, the successful architect (which was shown subtly through the quite abundant wealth in his house) who witnessed the killing of his family that totally ruined his life, and his struggle to be better emotionally while having the opportunity to seek vengeance. 

For me the opening scene and few minutes into the movie was fine, but subsequently I felt the story to have too many coincidences. Which is fine when it was done once or even twice. However, having it more than three times felt a bit too much for me. I do not have any problem with the pace as it felt just right, not too fast but not too slow either. Up to a certain moment, I actually was quite enjoying the movie especially when there was a surprising twist that I did not see coming. Unfortunately though, the climax was ruined by one moment that was poorly executed and looked silly to my opinion as it did not seem realistic (I think it was in the 1 hour 40 minutes or something). Otherwise it would have had a good enough ending.

For a movie about revenge, this one did have some part that would satisfy audience who root for Adam, but it might be a bit disturbing due to its violence. The movie was categorized as thriller and in certain ways it was rightfully classified. I did feel the drama was quite strong as well and it felt like the stage for Reza Rahadian to show us some cool acting skills (not that I ever doubt his ability as he had done so many times in the past). Laura Basuki was quite OK as well. And aside from those two, there were other important characters like the police detective (Yoga Pratama - Marlina si Pembunuh dalam 4 Babak etc), the robbers that consisted of tattoo guy (Haydar Salishz), limp guy (Kiki Narendra - Pengabdi Setan 2: The Communion etc) and the bald guy (Baim Wong - Bebas, Jenderal Soedirman etc). 

This film was written and directed by Teddy Soeriaatmadja who was experienced in directing movies that received multiple nominations and awards, such as remake of Badai Pasti Berlalu, Ruma MaidaLovely Man and few others. I also noticed that Baim Wong served as one of the producers with Teddy himself. The movie had a duration of 109 minutes including closing credits, but there was no mid or post end credit scene.

Overall, this was a dark and a bit heavy thriller drama movie about vengeance with wonderful performance from Reza Rahadian. There were few good qualities here (one of those would be the twist) and the story telling. But the too many coincidences and that one particular scene during the climax was definitely not one of them. I did enjoy the movie but I think it could have been even better if the scenario was not having too many of those chances, especially for a writer/director of Teddy's calibre. So if you are in the mood to see something different of Reza, then you should give this a try. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars 

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