10/10
PINTU TERLARANG sucks.. at being bad..
5 February 2009
The movie is so good that I just know it would finish last if there was a competition on sucking, or perhaps this movie would be disqualified even before the sucking competition started :P I think the thriller genre hasn't been getting any proper treatment from most Indonesian creators, what with the "supernatural horror" movie euphoria that's been sweeping the world. Let's face it, suspense thrillers just ain't what it used to be.

Then a movie comes along which brightens up your day and assures you that the Indonesian movie scene is alive and well, albeit riddled with ghosts and sexual mischief. A thriller that not only leaves questions but also a psychological mark within our minds. A brave move, I should say, to go against the mainstream market mindset and simply be different. And being different, in this case, is good.

The movie is about the sculptor, Gambir, who is tired of making statues of pregnant women. But his mysterious wife, Talyda, doesn't want him to stop making those statues, because that's where the money comes. While drowning in his past guilt and suspicion, Gambir gets a distress call from an abused child who keeps finding ways to write "Help Me" notes wherever Gambir goes.

Gambir becomes even more paranoid of those around him. And his wife is behaving more and more strangely. Does she have something to do with the abused child? What about the forbidden door in their house? Where does it lead? The dinner scene near the ending will blow your mind away. After that, Gambir will find the truth behind the forbidden door, and his life will never be the same. And neither will our life.

So, let's all thank the cast and crew of PINTU TERLARANG for bringing hope back into the fray with this latest offering from ex-movie-critic-turned-auteur Joko Anwar. Great. Simply a must-see movie if it happens to be playing in theaters near you.
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