Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Two pretty people fall in love on a pretty coast; language.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 13+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Make Me Believe
What's the Story?
In MAKE ME BELIEVE, Sahra (Ayca Aysin Turan) and Deniz (Ekin Koc) have known each other -- and alternately liked and detested each other -- since they were teens. Now their meddling best-friend grandmothers (Zerrin Somer and Yildiz Kultur), who live in a Greek coastal village, plot to bring the 20-somethings romantically together, concocting reasons to summon the busy careerists away from their all-consuming work. When the two arrive in the seaside town, magazine editor Sahra learns that Deniz, her crush of years ago, turns out to be the elusive photographer she's been trying to hire. If only he will shoot her next cover, she will earn the coveted editor-in-chief job over a rival. Even after a friend helps wrangle the curmudgeonly Deniz into helping Sahra, she keeps damaging the relationship further. Then, one day, they kiss, and everything is fine until one last conflict arises. Can this all be resolved?
Is It Any Good?
Make Me Believe is a fumbling, formulaic romcom in which two self-absorbed singles are pushed together by their meddling grandmothers. The visceral, mutual hatred the two share makes it difficult to imagine how the gray-haired plotters could see the pair as a viable match. The filmmakers strain uselessly to wrench humor out of the antagonism. Deniz is sleeping late when his grandmother needs him to rescue her cat out of a tree, so Sahra grudgingly climbs a ladder to grab the kitty. The ladder is knocked away and no one seems capable of putting it back so Sahra can get down. It doesn't get any funnier when Deniz shows up and the ladder hits him in the head. But it does make him even madder at Sahra than he already was.
Like all meet-cute movies, they hate each other at the start, but here there's no apparent reason for them to make the transition from hate to love. They finally kiss and -- abracadabra -- they're in love. But easy come, easy go. That fragile condition is immediately jeopardized by a completely contrived conflict that makes no sense and could easily be explained away if anyone bothered explaining anything. Ultimately, the friction is dismissed just as implausibly as it arose. Sahra ends up writing an interview she didn't conduct, which is a neat trick. The grandmas, who are cute, disappear after the first hour. They clearly knew enough to get out of there while the getting was good.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what essential elements make a romcom fun to watch. How many does this one have?
Does the movie show us how the man and woman come to feel love rather than anger toward each other? Does it matter?
How do the filmmakers use the natural beauty of the Greek seaside to enhance the story?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : June 23, 2023
- Cast : Ayca Aysin Turan , Ekin Koc , Zerrin Sumer , Yildiz Kultur
- Directors : Evren Karabiyik Gunaydin , Murat Saracoglu
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s) , Middle Eastern/North African Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Romance
- Run time : 103 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : July 6, 2023
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