Directed by Rafki Hidayat and Kevin Rahardjo, and written by Joko Anwar, Aline Djayasukmana and Rafki Hidayat, after surviving an accident, Alif, a micro-painting artist, is told by his doctor that his memory hasn’t fully recovered. When a woman claiming to be his mother comes to visit, Alif begins to sense something is wrong—he doesn’t recognize her face, and he suspects she might not be his mother. Starring: Rio Dewanto, Faradina Mufti, Vonny Anggraini, Jordan Omar, Sulthan Hamonangan, Gambit Saifullah and Nova Eliza.
A key to creating a film like Smothered is undoubtedly getting that suspicious air going early, strong and unrelenting, and Rafki Hidayat and Kevin Rahardjo do a great job with that. They create an atmosphere which makes you completely untrusting of anyone and everyone. Yet they don’t put all their eggs in one basket, they don’t make it too obvious where they’re going, which is always a bonus. Even the kid feels suspicious, but mostly because Jordan Omar’s performance makes him one of the most polite, courteous, empathetic and friendly child characters to ever appear on film, he’s adorable.
As well as creating that great sinister tone, Smothered is also paced well, adding in little reveals and slowly widening the cracks of Alif’s (Rio Dewanto) mind, rather than leaving everything until the last minute. However, it is still a slow burn, the tension gradually rises, and it does require a certain amount of patience. Although, when it does arrive at its big finale, you may find it’s simpler than hoped. After such a build-up, and crafting a good level of suspense, the result only explains a small number of the issues raised. Also, the more time you spend picking apart this story, the more it might start to feel like they’re not exactly fans of women, they don’t fare well here and are mostly secondary. The ending especially gives off that vibe as there’s hints of misogyny laced into its big reveal.
Regardless, the performances are solid throughout. Rio Dewanto’s Alif is an interesting mix of highly strung and emotionally broken. If Vonny Anggraini had been given a bit more of the spotlight and time to do justice to her character, she could have completely stolen the show. The dubious presence she creates is excellent and undoubtedly has a lot to add to the mystery of Smothered. Faradina Mufti gives a good performance but there’s elements to her character that feel unconvincing, the writing can make her choices slightly unnatural, and not in an intentional way to serve the story.
Smothered is shot well and creates a solidly suspicious atmosphere. The story works but it feels like they were aiming for something much more emotionally complex, with trauma and psychological damage, and the result doesn’t reflect that. There are a lot of unanswered questions and the finale is somewhat messy, it doesn’t wrap things up in a neat and satisfying way. Ultimately, it’s a decent watch but the writing creates a few too many shortcuts for itself, and and the directorial style can be a little heavy-handed at times, with its cracking mirrors and dream sequences.
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