Writer: Gareth Goh

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Director Bernard Chauly refers to his film as "Legally Blonde" and "Bend it like Beckham" with a touch of (popular local TV show) "3R". That's not a bad description at all - in fact, it describes the movie almost to a tee. Despite borrowing almost scene-by-scene and subplot-by-subplot from Hollywood hit "Legally Blonde", "Gol & Gincu" emerges as a relatively entertaining, light-hearted fare.



Nur Fazura stars as Putri, a local college student with aspirations of fashion design stardom. She is popular, trendy, and has a good-looking boyfriend in Eddy (Ashraf Sinclair). Eddy's parents have even begun planning their future engagement, wedding and lives together.



One day, Eddy abruptly breaks up with Putri, citing that she bores him and that the two have nothing to talk about. He is more passionate about futsal than anything else and seeks a like-minded girlfriend. With this, Putri sets out to assemble her own futsal team and win Eddy's heart back.



Along the way, Putri meets a host of varied characters, each with her own problems and influences on Putri's life. Among these are Zie (Rafidah Abdullah) who acts as her mentor/coach/teacher of life lessons, her troubled teenage neighbour Jiji (Sharifah Amani), her best friend and loyal supporter Mia (Melissa Maureen) and her rival and Eddy's new girlfriend, Shasha (Sazzy Falak). Putri discovers things about herself, her friends, and life in general as her aptly named "Bukan Team Biasa" (not your regular team) starts winning.



The cast throw in a very normal, to-be-expected performance. Putri is at times girlishly irritating, annoying and airheaded, in other words, everything she's supposed to be. Sinclair, as ex-boyfriend Eddy, is your typical Malaysian college youth, not sure of what he wants but passionate about football above all. Every other character is pretty much similarly typecast into a stereotype, there are a few tomboys who fight for women's rights on the futsal pitch, the supportive best friend who is perturbed by Putri's desire to play futsal rather than go out to a club but is nevertheless loyal, there is the troubled teenager who has to deal with domestic abuse at home but keeps her problems bottled up, and there is the love-stricken worker at the futsal complex who watches Putri from a distance. Each character plays his or her role subtly and adequately, with no standout performances, but no particularly disappointing ones either.



The strength of the movie is simply in portraying accurately what life for Malaysian college youths is like, with conversations in an urban mix of Malay and English. Audiences are able to relate to the suburban semi-detached houses, hanging out at mamak stalls, clubbing at Zouk on Wednesday nights, and of course, the passion of Malaysian football and futsal fans. This grounds the movie in a very acknowledgeable reality that is both appreciated and well done.



In all, the movie proves to be light-hearted and occasionally funny entertainment. Editing seemed the most commendable feature of this movie though, where action sequences are impressively cut, snappy when appropriate, and sequenced with a soundtrack that captures the mood well. At the very least, it shows that our local film industry is indeed improving, slowly, but surely.


Cinema Online, 23 September 2008