(2026) The Invisible Guest - The Indonesian Remake of Well Received Full of Twist Psychological Drama Movie from Spain

When I got notification email from HBO Max several days ago, I was surprised as it promoted a new Indonesian movie that I never heard or known before. Anyway once I saw its premise and the lead star I was obviously intrigued. So when it was finally released yesterday at 2 PM like advertised, I immediately watched it. Without further ado, here's more on the film.

Brief Story Line

Movie started with the appearance of Reza (Reza Rahadian - Keadilan, Berbalas Kejam etc), a very experienced lawyer in the apartment where Mawar (Mawar de Jongh - Virgo and the Sparklings, The Shadow Strays etc) was staying. She was under house arrest as main suspect in the murder of Yoshi (Arifin Putra - Foxtrot 6, Sang Pengadil etc). As someone who never lost a case, Reza demanded Mawar to tell her every little detail including things related to the missing person case sometime back.

Despite her reluctance, Mawar trusted the recommendation of her personal lawyer Widya (Vonny Anggraini - Abadi Nan Jaya, Kupu Malam web series etc) and opened up to Reza even though he kept on showing his disbelief in the various holes of her story. As Mawar continued telling her side, Reza kept drilling her to find out the whole truth.

So what actually happened and how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

I watched this movie by myself while my wife was doing her own thing. However she sometimes would catch glimpses and provided commentaries. One thing that I noticed was when Mawar was telling the story related to the missing person case, I felt a hint of familiarity which my wife also highlighted. So I immediately looked for more info and found it was a remake of Spain 2016 movie with same title. But what surpised me was when I read further and saw it had been remade into several adaptations by India, China and South Korea which apparently I had seen before with the title Confession (I think I have forgotten about this detail as it was 4 years ago).

Sadly from that moment on, there was no longer the element of surprise as I continued watching since more or less I could remember vaguely the main plot. However, I still enjoyed seeing the performance of Reza Rahadian. It was another example of how extraordinary he was as an actor. There was one moment after he burst out of emotion where he suddenly seemed tired and old like his character which was just amazing. Mawar de Jongh did OK enough while Arifin Putra was pretty decent. 

Aside from the above names, there were also important characters of the good samaritan Donny portrayed by Willem Bevers (Musuh Dalam Selimut, The Architecture of Love etc) who gave solid performance, his wife Salma (Putri Ayudya - 13 Bom di Jakarta, Kereta Berdarah etc) and the missing person Dito (Gusti Rayhan - Dilan movies etc). There few support cast like Edo Borne (I Know What You Did on Facebook etc) as Mawar's husband Aditya and few others, including special appearance by Jeremy Thomas (The Watcher, Mencintaimu TV series etc).

This movie had a duration of 121 minutes including closing credits. There was no mid or post end credit scene here, but I was surprised to see it was copyrighted in 2023. After further reading, I found out that it was actually a 2022 production and there were a lot of news circulating during that time about this remake. I honestly am not sure the reason for such delay in the release and how it ended up being released as HBO Max original. In any case it's a good thing cause knowing HBO, they always liked to produce high quality movie/series, so this could potentially be the start of many more in the future.

This Indonesian adaptation was directed by Danial Rifki known for mostly drama movies such as Rumah Masa Depan, Malaikat Tanpa Sayap etc. SInce I had watched the South Korean version and read the Spain version, I could say that this one was almost identical in term of the story till the end except with a gender swap. While the Korean adaptation remained faithful to the gender but they changed the ending which was why I was still surprised with the ending of this Indonesian version. 

In the end, this was a good enough remake of a well received psychological drama movie. For people who had never seen the original and various other adaptations, this should be entertaining with its multi layered story and plot twists. With the support of wonderful acting by Reza Rahadian, this should be enjoyable for fans of mystery solving case using the art of deception. So if you are fans of such movie, I think you would enjoy this one. And if you had seen other remakes or even the original, then you could at least watch this for comparison purpose. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars