100% Halal is a Indonesian drama film directed by Jastis Arimba and starring Anisa Rahma, Anandito Dwis, Kinaryosih and Ariyo Wahab, alongside other cast members.
100% Halal starts off with an 18-year-old marrying a 20-year-old. As with most marriages that are drowning in religion, Anisa is oblivious to the life that awaits her after her marriage to Putra. The latter knows her and has affections for her, but Anisa knows nothing about her husband. So why is she marrying him, you ask? Because her father chose him for her, and her father can never be wrong, right?
100% Halal is not an enjoyable movie. It’s silly, it’s extremely problematic and the bad guy is forgiven all too quickly. The movie has no redeeming qualities, no twist that provides a different perspective. It’s a movie that moves in a straight line and has so many jarring problems that you wonder how it got made.
First of all, 18-year-old Anisa marries 20-year-old Putra. Anisa is still in high school and Putra is in college. Neither have any plans on how they will take care of each other, he doesn’t have a house to take her to and Anisa’s answer to every question is that her father will take care of them. Honestly, Anisa’s father’s brainwashing is to such an extent that she sees no evil when it comes to him. He is all for getting kids married as soon as possible, projecting his own life’s failures, and that is how he has brought up his daughter.
The fact that a movie in 2021 is showcasing how this is a thing is alarming and at no point does the movie ever show us that this is probably not a good idea. Everyone is okay with the fact that two children are getting married and having kids – that’s fine. Additionally, when Anisa gets to know about her father’s horrible transgressions, it takes her a total of 10 minutes to forgive him. That man caused her mother so much of sadness and lied to her for 18 years, and that’s forgiven in a matter of minutes.
100% Halal’s pacing and story are all over the place. We spend too much time on stupid and silly things that add nothing to the story at hand but don’t talk enough about important things. It’s all super dramatic and it’s so annoying after a while that it becomes difficult to watch. The movie shows us nothing new or important. It’s all about marriage, having children out of wedlock and forgiveness. The story is so frugal and the problems so easily solvable that you’d wonder why this is a feature-length movie.
Additionally, the acting is so horrible it will blow your mind. I have never seen an actor being so stiff as Ariyo Wahab portraying Anisa’s father. Him showcasing emotions is very difficult to watch. The other cast members including Anisa Rahma, Anandito Dwis and Kinaryosih are fine, although it’s nothing mind-blowing.
Summing up: 100% Halal
100% Halal is a conservative film that, let alone romantic, is extremely scary to witness. You watch movies expecting to either see the truth or some fantasy that you’d want your life to be. This is neither. It glorifies getting married too young and having kids and that’s not something I want to watch. The satirical parts are not well-done and fall flat on its face as well.
I think if the creators went deeper into the problems of the characters and decided to break up these problems by creating a TV series instead of a movie then it would’ve had better luck at touching these topics. Unfortunately, it tries to push in too many themes and thus is unable to focus on one.
100% Halal is streaming on Netflix.
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