Apa Kata Hati?

Having high expectations is forgivable when you watch a movie directed by the guy who did Puteri Gunung Ledang. Apa Kata Hati?, however, fails to score even a small mole hill of reward. The movie is about Elly (Raja Farah) and the breakdown of her unconditional love for her ideal man, Aidil (played by Farid Kamal. “ideal,” get it?). Faced with his increasingly frequent cancelled dates, reluctance to commitment and mysterious female clients – we never find out what exactly it is he does—Elly agrees to consult a bomoh for a solution. The result? She gains the ability to hear what (straight) men are thinking within five feet of her.

Did someone just say Mel Gibson’s What Women Want but in reverse? While possibilities inherent in a premise like this are almost limitless, the movie doesn’t seem able to run with the ball. The psychic angle doesn’t get used for anything other than dry guffaws and cop-out resolutions. The young main cast seem to only be good at one of two acting styles, cardboard or over the top. Consequently, any kind of acting chops available here end up coming only from the experienced supporting actors. In fact, AC Mizal steals the show as the hack bomoh, and it’s too bad he didn’t get more screen time. So what do you get when you mix a barely-fleshed-out plot, clunky script and wooden acting from the main cast? A romantic comedy that fails to deliver even the most basic of rom com rewards. Apa Kata Hati? might be proof that director Saw Teong Hin should stick to classical Malay mythology. Trying to read our minds with this flick will just get him a resounding, “say what?”

Cast Raja Farah, Farid Kamil, Awal Ashaari, Dynas Mokhtar, Awie, Fauziah Ahmad Daud, AC Mizal, Kartina Aziz Director Saw Teong Hin Runtime 105 mins Opens May 29

Text Azwan Mahzan