For the last two years, Indonesian Cinema had been awaken. At the end of the year 2002, Transinema Pictures brought us a nice romantic comedy but unoriginal "Andai Ia Tahu" starring Rachel Maryam and Marcellius Siahaan which was directed by Indra Yudhistira. "Andai Ia Tahu" seems to be the second romantic comedy in 2002 since the successful "Ada Apa Dengan Cinta?" a.k.a "What's Up With Love?".
The movie was about Love, Destiny, Soul mate, etc. A media writer named Renata met Rio who worked as a Tv Producer when their elevator got stucked accidentally on the 17th floor. They got to know more about each other and they have a very interesting conversation. Soon they realized that they fell in love. But when the encounter was over, they got separated and go their on ways. But that moment became one of their memories that were kept inside their hearts. They kept thinking about each other and that's why they tried as hard as they can to reunite and finally Miracle and Destiny gave them what they wanted.
The movie started in a simple but unique way. It was introduced in black and white with a flashback on the concept of "time". "Andai Ia Tahu" was the second movie for the director Indra Yudhistira. It seems that he did a better job than in his first direction on the 2001 adventure "Jakarta Project". In some way, the movie has great cinematography especially in the first part of the movie (Hollywood-style) but in some scenes, the cinematography got a bit messed up.
The unique Rachel Maryam and good-looking newcomer Marcellius Siahaan both did an exceptional performance. Also the supporting actress, Priscillia Camelia, did a very emotional acting. The movie had some poor minor actors except Harry Pantja who had starred in the horror movie "Jelangkung". The movie did handle a mix balance of character development but it required more deeper.
In the middle, the movie went a bit slow and got boring. But the movie got enlightened with the help of the interesting dialogue and the amusing humour. There were lots of good ideas on the humours and the scenes. The bad thing is the plot development. The movie had only a few conflicts and in some way, the resolution was too simple.
Most of the times, the audience got surrounded by romantic and slow musics. I must have to admit that the soundtracks were pretty good and the soundtrack crew did an excellent job. The soundtracks were slightly different with "Ada Apa Dengan Cinta?" because the movie is not only for teenager but also for people on their 30's.
In comparing "Andai Ia Tahu" and "Ada Apa Dengan Cinta?", both movies had the same quality. They were a fair and nice romantic comedy but definitely unoriginal and with lack of many things. Some ideas in the scenes are pretty much the same as "Ada Apa Dengan Cinta?" but in a more mature way for example the ending when Rio and Renata hugged each other at the train station was slightly the same when Cinta and Rangga kissed at the airport.
One of the bad things about the movie was the editing. The editing was simply such a mess and some of the scenes weren't attached together nicely. However I thought the movie was quite unique and enjoyable. As an Indonesian movie, "Andai Ia Tahu" was just at my expectation. But off course the movie needs more things.
I rate this movie 6/10 (Indonesian Rating).
