Layla Majnun Film Review, A Responsible Feel For A Legend

Layla Majnun (Photo: IG @laylamajnunfilm)

JAKARTA - The Layla Majnun film can be enjoyed on Netflix since 11 February. The film, starring Acha Septriasa, Reza Rahadian, and Baim Wong, offers three beauties at once, a romantic story, poetic dialogue and a view of Azerbaijan. This film was developed from the poetry work of Nizami Ganjavi into a modern version.

Layla Majnun tells the story of Layla (Acha Septriasa), an independent and highly educated religious woman who falls in love with Samir (Reza Rahadian), a smart and romantic man from Azerbaijan. However, Layla is caught in an arranged marriage with a man named Ibnu (Baim Wong). Layla also has to choose to marry a loved one or with Samir.

Enjoying this film from the start requires a high level of patience, because the character introduction takes place slowly. Unfortunately, even though it was slowed down, the characters were not explained in detail so that the audience had to guess until more than half of the film duration.

Unfortunately, Layla as the novelist who is important to underline all the stories of this film is not well conveyed. The character of the cottage teacher is more prominent.

In fact, the novel is the beginning of an important bridge to connect Layla and Majnun's hearts. It's not that there is no explanation, but because of the placement behind it makes Layla Majnun quite difficult to follow.

Baim Wong, who plays the character Ibnu, has the potential to make real baper. Because its appearance at the beginning is quite promising. Layla and Ibnu had a marriage agreement which they consciously accepted. Unfortunately, Ibnu was not maximized to be an antagonist.

Placing high expectations on the chemistry of Acha and Reza in this film is a mistake. They managed to bring laughter, tears, and emotions to the Test Pack film, You're My Baby but not in this film.

What made the nearly 2 hours of watching the Layla Majnun film worthwhile was that the choice of poetic words quoted in the film made the heart tremble. Apart from that, the view of Azerbaijan which is not usually seen in Indonesian cinema is also quite happy.