'Aşk Sana Benzer': Seriously?

I really don't know where to begin: If this is a film about true love, then we should all reconsider our past and present relationships and jump off the Bosporus Bridge. The new rom-com/melodrama commodity, from TAFF Pictures and actor Burak Özçivit's company BRK'S Production, directed by Taner Elhan (a capable director known for the lovely “Kadın İşi Banka Soygunu” [All-Woman Bank Heist]) and written by Bedia Ceylan Güzelce, comes in the form of “Aşk Sana Benzer” (Love Looks Like You).

This is a film that so boldly and restlessly exploits the audience's yearning for star-crossed romance between unbelievably beautiful people who don't need to slave 10 hours a day to earn a living, that even our secret guilty pleasures regarding such a fantasy world come off as violated.

Going even further, my personal lifelong fantasy of moving to a cozy Aegean coastal town has been shattered in the fear that I might run into the film's characters.

Being the star-driven project that it is, we are first introduced to the unbearably handsome Ali (Özçivit of “Magnificent Century” fame). Ali runs a family restaurant passed on to him by his deceased parents in an unidentified Aegean town. He is not only a great restaurant manager, but he's also the favorite young stud of the town since he looks out for everyone. This man is drawn to be the epitome of the modern-day “Efe” (the Aegean term for swashbuckler), not only with his personality but also in the way he puts on those skinny tight black pants and knee-high buccaneer boots. Ladies, do I have your attention yet?

Anyhow, one day, Ali runs into the frail and beautiful Deniz (Fahriye Evcen), who has come to town to seek a job at a family-run ice-cream parlor. Ali and Deniz have a meet-cute over a smashed watermelon, and Ali immediately falls in love with the girl. She's not so into him at first and snubs his advances (don't we just love to refuse the hottest guy around?). Over time she develops a crush on him, but apparently the girl is harboring a huge secret that prevents her from fully committing to Ali. This secret is one we will never really understand until the last 20 minutes of this two-hour film, which leaves us hanging and wondering about Deniz's neurotic and traumatic actions until the very end.

The second act is infused with elaborate master-shots, dinner and frolics in the sea as our two romantic leads present a Turkish version of “The Blue Lagoon.” They live in Ali's family's small and isolated hut located on the shore of an idyllic bay that would have already been conquered and exploited by the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ) in real life. An hour goes by without anything really happening, save for a grandiose sentimental fallout that is later mended by the town's sage/ folk musician/ hermit, acted by Yavuz Bingöl. We watch the two lovebirds as they constantly tell each other pseudo- poetic truisms of life found in self-help books and, as such, validate their philosophies of what love really is and, oh, how much they adore one another. At this point, Deniz still cannot bring herself to confess her secret to her heroic lover.

When the villain of the story (Selim Bayraktar) finally comes into the picture and it is revealed to us what he has subjected Deniz to in the past, it comes off as the most unconvincing element regarding the foundation of the story. We wonder to ourselves why she never told Ali everything in the first place, or, even better, why it wasn't revealed to us. If the most important key of the melodramatic tension and the audience's emotional connection is withholding information only from a certain character but fully informing the audience, this film drives itself down the rabbit hole by not trusting its audience and giving them the chance to care for the film's characters. Save for the screen allure of Evcen, Özçivit and Özçivit's boots, there seem to be no adequate emotional and physical dispositions or internal conflicts of the characters that we know of that would help us engage in their supposed plight.

The climactic finale faintly reminds one of Phillip Noyce's “Dead Calm,” and there's much potential here, yet the absurdity of the situation prevents any sort of suspense. A melodramatic conclusion is inflicted upon us to embrace all the poetry and singing sprinkled throughout the film, but the magic is ultimately busted when Evcen emerges from the sea dressed like a Brazilian escort and mildly evoking Halle Berry in “Die Another Day.”

If “Aşk Sana Benzer” wholeheartedly embraced its cheesiness and kitsch, instead of taking itself so seriously, it could have been a wonderful melodrama on par with Yeşilçam, yet its unreachable ambitions get in the way.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)