Negeri Van Oranje (2015) User Reviews

Great movie if you want to pursue study in Europe!

[jamilihsan · 10/10 · 2 January 2016]

I love this movie since this movie drawn to me the sightseeing of countries in Europe briefly, especially the Netherlands and Prague in the Czech Republic. Besides, this movie also drawn about the friendship of a group of Indonesian who pursue their master degree in the Netherlands. Backwards plot used in this movie, since its storyline is about describing the reason why the bride choose her groom. Its groom is from her best friend instead of other man. Also there are plenty of humor scenes that appear during this 90 minutes movie. I appreciate with the moral values that are taught in this movie. So that this movie also good to be watched by many people. In some scenes, there are many hugs showing between male and female. Not recommended to watch for below 17. But some of the story lines are quite boring because of not too much "up" scene or "action" scene during the movie. Nevertheless, it's not significant. Overall, I give 10 ratings for the best shots in this movie.

Unrealistic expectations of studying abroad, mediocre love story with some twists **SPOILERS**

[callistoceres · 5/10 · 15 March 2018]

I disagree with the review before me, this movie is the reason why you should not trust "studying abroad" movies if you ever have a plan to study abroad. Everything being shown here is a romanticisation of what it is like to study in the Netherlands. Seriously, no student drives unless you're a damn millionaire. And most students are on scholarship, as mentioned in the movie. This is contradictory. Lintang is a plain and boring character, her character fell under the shadows of the other four great main actors who truly showed their talents in playing their characters. Unlike the premise, they rarely talked about the dreams of each of the character, well, because it's a romance movie. Everything just had to revolve around Lintang being courted by (SPOILERS) three of her friends. Everything revolves around breakups and courting in between these five students and surprise, they don't even study at all. Although I am a bit surprised by this movie's mature approach to the sensitive subject matters such as sexual orientation and religion, the cheesy romantic scenes and the cliche narrative-story telling unfortunately override its potential as most of the character's life stories are not being explored in depth. I, for example, could not sympathise with Lintang, she seemed like a caricature: a passive, feminine, rich woman, and honestly, she had a personality of a wall. Although if that's what the director was going for, then the actress did a good job. Hell, I don't even remember what Lintang studied as her existence seemed to depend on her interactions with other people! On the other hand, the cinematography is beautiful. The movie truly showed the beauty of the Netherlands (yes, even the robbery scene). The soundtrack can be a bit too much, but that is to be expected from these kinds of movies. A decent movie to watch if you have a leisure time. Strangely enough, with all of the main characters being students, none of them were shown their struggles while studying or even adapting to a completely different culture and language than Indonesia! They are in the Netherlands as if it is something they do everyday! Horribly inaccurate in this matter. How about homesickness? Bureaucracy in the indonesian embassy? housing difficulties? Discrimination/racism? Being very short? Seasonal time shifts and its effect on their sleep? Having to schedule video call with family at their home country 6 hours in advance? Getting lost? Rarely eating rice? Adapting to a completely different teaching method? Mental stress or heck, bicycle accidents? There are so much more materials you can use in a movie about studying in the netherlands as an indonesian student instead of focusing on the romance! However, as a romance, the story worked out quite well although I can argue that the ending is not properly executed. The love story seems to be taken out of some otome game, with all the guys with distinct personalities (well, except one) liking this one, generic, girl. She could've shown more expression and character instead of just being 'elegant', 'feminine' and occassionally saying iiiih kok gitu sih to her friends' pesterings. Otherwise, the acting is the best thing about this movie, the characters come to live, translates well into the story-telling, and their friendship seems realistic enough. However, I'm still quite disappointed because I have a lot of expectations on movies about studying abroad. I think this is the time Indonesia has to make a movie that is more realistic about studying abroad instead of solely focusing on the romances and the merry touristic exploration of the country that only serves as a setting. Due to their previous intention of studying in the Netherlands, I think it is only natural for me to expect some scenes of them studying and to see their lives revolve around studying. While in this movie, the Netherlands only serves as a background setting where every event happened. It does not hold any major significance to the plot other than for aesthetics reasons. Frankly, you can move the setting to Jakarta, take out the travel scenes, and it won't make any difference as a romance movie.

Could have been so much better, 5/10