Third Star (2010) : A Fun Camping Trip

“The sickness is mine but the tragedy is theirs” –James

Membuat film tentang orang yang sekarat bukanlah hal yang mudah. Kalau tidak berhati-hati, maka film akan menjadi over melodramatic, berisi orang-orang berlinangan air mata dan perpisahan yang cheesy. Jenis film yang saya hindari. Namun berbeda dengan Third Star, yes it still tear-jerker movie, tapi setidaknya film ini tidak masuk dalam kategori menye-menye yang membuat saya geli ketika menyaksikannya.

Third Star is a feature film debut by Hattie Dalton, Brits director who was once winning a BAFTA award. She collected the most promising young Brits actors for played as four best friends in Third Star. As a simple explanation, Third Star is a movie about camping trip, but it wasn’t an ordinary camping trip. It was a last wish of James Kimberly Griffith (Benedict Cumberbatch) who terminally ill because of cancer. He want to escape from ‘his pitying mob’ a.k.a his family, because they – and also himself – know that he can’t make any longer because of the illness. So he summoned his best friends to accompanied him on a trip into Barafundle Bay, James most favorite place in the world. Davy (Tom Burke), unemployment who dedicated his time to take care of James. Bill (Adam Robertson), a fun-loving bloke who got into problematic relationship and it sucked the live out of him. And the last is Miles (J.J Feild), James closest friend, who had kept away from him when he got sick.

It was a fun trip. They shared dirty jokes and laughed about it. They also were fooling around acted like children. Dalton menampilkan perjalanan ini dengan begitu drama-ish, with soft colors, sun-kissed and blurred vision. Nothing extraordinary. Di pertengahan film, lack of experience dari sutradara mulai terasa. Adegan demi adegan terkesan lepas tidak terarah. Adegan yang seharusnya menjadi metafora dan dilengkapi karakter tambahan justru terkesan pointless. Tapi kekurangan itu tertolong dengan dialog cerdas serta chemistry yang meyakinkan dari keempat aktor muda tersebut.

Miles (Feild), Bill (Robertson), James (Cumberbatch), Davy (Burke)

Cumberbatch was the star of all four. James wasn’t an optimist ill person. He becomes egomaniac who does tend to speak harshly with his friends. His bitterness comes along with the feeling when he realized that his life become so meaningless with so much pain. He feel disappointed with his friends, because he thought they weren’t living the life to the fullest. He said, “I’d take any one of your pointless consumer-f*cker lives.” Yes, Cumberbatch got all the clever lines in the movie. My favorite line of his is, “All those daydreams become fantasies rather than possibilities.” Cumberbatch really change from manipulative-space-terrorize in Star Trek into sick-person-with-sharp-tongue.

Selain Cumberbatch, Burke juga memberikan acting yang menarik. Davy adalah figur yang memegang tanggung jawab disini. Ia tidak pernah pergi dari sisi James. His caretaker position was well played. He was the one who worried about the tent when it burned because of the fireworks, and about the food to make sure that James could go through the trip. He holds himself back with all the doofus around him. He had to watch James and his two friends so they could reach the bay safe and sound. But, with his ‘motherhood’ comes funny things, like the lines he said after the tent got burned and they had to sleep in one tent. Davy said, “I got my knife with me, so if one of you start going ‘Brokeback’, I’ll start going ‘Rambo’. Hilarious.

Dalton mampu menyeimbangkan aspek komedi lewat dialog dan perilaku kekanak-kanakan keempat karakter, dengan unsur drama yang berasal kondisi James dan kehidupan yang dialami ketiga sahabatnya. Cara Dalton menampilkan persabahatan keempat karakter dalam film ini menarik. Davy, Miles dan Bill berkali-kali harus menjadi sasaran sindiran James. Meskipun ketiganya muak pada James, tapi pada akhirnya mereka tetap bisa tertawa bersama, tanpa harus prosesi permintaan maaf yang chessy dan unmanly.

Lepasnya fokus pada pertengahan film terbayar 20 menit menjelang akhir film. James akhirnya menjelaskan maksud dari camping trip tersebut. Permintaan terakhir James kepada ketiga temannya jauh lebih besar dari sekedar menemaninya melihat pantai. James menginginkan kesempatan terakhir untuk merasakan perjuangan mengatasi rasa takut. Mungkin beberapa orang akan merasa akhir film ini menyalahi moral, tapi itu adalah salah satu adegan ending film yang menarik. It was probably unlikeable but it was served in modest way, not too much talking and arguing. Simple but intense. Some people might see the ending as a tragedy but if you see from James’ is just his way to win his life back. It was his way to winning over something, like illness.

ps: another favorite lines from Third Star,

"So I raise a morphine toast to you. And, should you remember that it's the anniversary of my birth, remember that you were loved by me and you made my life a happy one. And there's no tragedy in that." -James