Ayat-Ayat Cinta (Verses of Love)

I think it has been already more than one month since the premiere of "Ayat-Ayat Cinta (Verses of Love)". But even until yesterday night, the mass enthusiasm only allowed us to get the first row --the most unwanted row on the theater--, unavoidably. Watching that two hours movie at such position could mean severe neck stiffness.

As I remember, the first Indonesian movie that was able to attract such great attention is "Ada Apa dengan Cinta (What's Up with Love)". This movie has become a milestone which opened a new potential genre in Indonesian movie, that is, romantic teen movie. It can be seen that a bunch of similar movies have been produced after that.

So, what kind of genre has the "Ayat-Ayat Cinta" offered? Religious-romantic movie? I'm not sure, but this kind of movie has very distinctive kind compared to another recent Indonesian movies (teen scary, teen romantic, or American Pie-like movies). I am personally appreciating the presence of "Ayat-Ayat Cinta" together with the messages it has brought.

Not to forget, converting a thick novel into a two hours movie still seems to be a hard homework for Indonesian movie writer and director. Even without reading the novel, I know that there were lot of leaps has occured on the movie.