#ModusAnomali is not flawless, but still agreeable

MODUS ANOMALI

Director: Joko Anwar

Stars: Rio Dewanto, Marsha Timothy
Year Released: 2012

Modus Anomali started with a man woke up in the middle of the forest and not able to remember almost everything, include his name. Later, he found that his wife was brutally murdered, pieces of information of the man is and suddenly it became a cat-mouse chase between him and the murderer. 

So we have probably seen the trailer of Modus Anomali since last year's INAFFF, haven't we? Probably some of you have heard about it even long before November last year. First time, I saw the trailer, I seriously rolled my eyes and asked: Why is it in English? Still until today, I consider that as the biggest flaw of Modus Anomali. (BTW, ANOMALI is not an English word).

Now, it's arrived.

I understand Joko Anwar's intention of being playfulness with his audience. How he might soak-up a great deal of pleasure while taking his audience to solve the mystery of the movie. However, although Modus Anomali can be considered fair in as a whole production, in some parts, it looks like it's trying too hard.

Anwar doesn't exactly give us a reason why the psychopath did what he did (to experience a great shot adrenalin is never good enough, #justsaying) although he feels that it's necessary for us to see how he did it. He took at least 15 minutes to explain the whole process and (probably) was hoping the audience had some regrets not paying a good attention to the movie. Unfortunately, many of us are not quite brain-dead yet, so we felt that 15minutes just drenched the whole mystery of the movie. 

Tips for you who haven't seen the movie: avoid sitting next to a row of young girls, they're giggling the whole movie. Seriously annoying. Yes, yes, we know that Rio is a handsome guy.

Probably I'm not in the right chair to compare Modus Anomali to Michael Haneke's works. But anyway, If you remember Funny Games or even The White Ribbon, Haneke didn't bother to explain anything. His movies just show a period of time as an event occurred and that's all. He left his audience to interpret why, how and sometimes he didn't leave an ending to it. 

I strongly believe Modus Anomali should have gone that way. Cut out the last 15 minutes and end the movie while the psychopath got in the car, made that phone call and just drove away. That at least 5 minutes driving scene could have been legendary. It's COLD! It's how a psychopath should be.

Still, I think Modus Anomali is quite agreeable.

Anyway, I'm heading to cinema for #TheAvengers! Exciting!