A Small September Affair (2014)

Overrated and overhyped

As Good As It Gets

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is controversial how to achieve balance between talent and life. Being devoted and excel in one field happens mostly on the account of life and family. But it's all about perspective, of which lens we see the world. For the talent, the world becomes so beautiful in their mind despite all life challenges. The only thing that makes their life complete is acceptance and appreciation by people, rather than being judged by shallow-minded personalities who cannot see other than themselves. It is undeniable that I was touched by the story. For those who watched "Bi Küçük Eylül Meselesi'", I recommend to spare some time and watch Enid (2009), a very successful story writer and teller to children. It's a pity that family and friends in both movies had to suffer rather than live blessed with talent.

There's a lot going on in A Small September Affair. But first, the name in English... Well, it is not a great translation, because it gives something away which it should not. The word in Turkish "mesele" is best translated as "issue" or "problem" as in "there's the issue of what happened in September." Ordinarily, this is a good translation, but when, at the beginning, we are not supposed to have any idea about an affair, the title gives away that there is an affair, it is not such a great choice. In Turkish, the title does not imply an affair and one starts watching the film with the intended ignorance about any affair. The name of the leading female character is Eylul, which means September, so the title plays on the word successfully in Turkish.The acting is done well, the music is perhaps overdone a bit in places, and the usual Turkish melodramatic tendencies are there, but all realistic enough (for after all, we are dealing with Turks here, so lack of sentimentality would be like asking Almodovar not to have anything campy in his films!) The plot is mysterious and successfully unraveled at a good pace. I was aware what the big reveal would be in the end half way into the film, but the film was engaging enough to keep me interested and wait to see how things would happen.Perhaps my biggest complaint is the overwhelmingly stupid narration about ugly people and beautiful people. Ugly people are just dying for a look from beautiful people, and when they get that glance, they just fall in love right away, because ugly people have nothing else they value in their lives and so on. To add to this, the "ugly" male lead is not at all ugly, and the beautiful woman is a fake blond who is OK looking, but nothing special (I am aware she would still be considered special In Turkey...) It is NOT that difficult to find someone who is not traditionally "handsome" by many people's standards, yet the film has failed to do this. Together, the couple looks pretty good, if you ask me. He was horribly dressed in fisherman- looking beach wear most of the time, in an attempt, I am assuming, at making him look "ugly."In the end, big points for a twisty plot that is well-paced. The whole sentimental ugly vs. beautiful people narration should have dealt with the real issues at hand: that the male lead was shy, antisocial, withdrawn, while the female character was fake, shallow, and unable to engage with other people in an emotionally fulfilling way. To attribute these fundamental characteristics to their ugliness or beauty makes one wonder how the writer can have such a shallow point of view.

I am not a big fan of romance movies but to me it was all I needed. Plot is maybe slow but not boring. It touched me, and any movie that can do that is special. If you are looking for something that will live a mark on your soul just go ahead and watch it. It's not epic but it seems to be a little piece of life. Don't let this one miss you. Everything imperfect has a chance to become perfect. This is the first time I see these actors and they have done their job very well. Music is following the plot. The place where the movie had been taken is beautiful. Now I have found one more destination to visit. I will be coming back to this movie just because of the feeling.

On one movie site part of the plot summary reads.. "A weird looking, grubby recluse, comes up-to him and proclaims: "Don't you remember me? I'm the man you fell in love with." This description is as convoluted and confusing as watching this movie. You can call Engin Aky a bunch of things, but in this movie, not many would be agreeing with 'weird and/ or grubby.. and Farah Zeynep Abdullah is most definitely a 'her.' The film has some charm.. but the storyline is way too muddled, it's near impossible to kept track what's going on at any one moment from the next. And really the story is so simple, when you come right down to it, it could have presented in an hour TV show..and with commercials the 45 minutes would've been more than enough.