Son Istasyon (2010) Reviews

• good acting, meaningful message in a corny, hackneyed and schmaltzy flick!

  elsinefilo2010-07-28

  Son Istasyon (Last Stop) is the first feature length movie of Oğulcan Kırca, the son of Levent Kirca who has been actually known for his time-honored TV-series "Olacak O Kadar" in which he impersonated many different people.. Known for his clever and somewhat grotesque parodies, honestly most people just wondered how Levent Kırca would do in a "drama".Son İstasyon is actually the last example of recent Turkish cinema in which directors give roles to their own immediate relatives and that may have awakened a bit of curiosity too. Ruhi( Levent Kırca) is a railway worker who is counting the days for his retirement. With his retirement benefits he dreams of having a house which doesn't have a leaky roof.On the other hand, his children have totally different plans. Esra (Başak Daşman)wants to sign up for a beauty contest to get famous. Önder ( Korel Cezayirli) who gives himself the airs of a swashbuckler dreams of getting rich easily. The elder son Turgay (Gökçer Genç) is a conductor of orchestra and he's literally cut off his relations with his family. The Kırca duo does well while trying to give meaningful message about the world we live in at the moment.Being an honest, frank father of good repute does not necessarily make good kids.'Like father, like son' which is the favorite cliché of sons who 'have a conflict with authority' is something antipodal to what happens in this movie. Unfortunately it all flies in the face of creative film-making because on one hand you try to avoid a cliché then you write a script in which there are "overused" sets of events. The girl is innocent but falls in love with the guy who is already married, she gets pregnant. Her macho brother accidentally hears about this and he decides to punish the man for his unworthy actions. He does his job and he disappears. The drama does not end here. The girl is forced to marry a guy who actually adores him but whom she does not like a bit. The good-hearted fellow never questions the fact why all of a sudden the girl is all ready to marry him. To save face, the head of the family decides to emigrate. There can be few people who still live like that Anatolia but not all the girls think of shagging married rich guys while not every retired fellow dreams of hitting the lottery jackpot. To remind people of "filial love and respect" and to warn people against the degenerative parent-child relationships in the modern world, the Kırca duo should have been more creative. The laudable acting and the noteworthy message in the movie is marred by the overused,bromidic and predictable scenario. With more innovative,stimulating ideas the message and the acting would not have been wasted.

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