‘A Normal Woman’ (2025) Netflix Movie Review - Predictable Story, Predictable Images

The Gunawan family consists of a domineering matriarch, Liliana (Widyawati), and her son, Jonathan (Dion Wiyoko), who, when not agreeing to his mother's wishes, goes to the gym and pumps his muscles. This mama's boy is married to Milla (Marissa Anita), who neither comes from a financially rich background nor does she dominate her husband with her feminine wiles. How did they meet? How did Milla and Jonathan become a couple? Milla's mother, Novi (played by Maya Hasan), had apparently worked hard to make this marriage happen. But what exactly did she do, and how did she convince a woman like Liliana to agree to her own son's nuptials? Lucky Kuswandi and his co-writer, Andri Cung, don't discuss these matters. They offer us a rigid framework—a half-baked mixture of body horror clichés and "you go, girl" empowerment. The Gunawan family's house is luxurious, but the lighting inside is dim, and the atmosphere is oppressive and strained. Jonathan and Milla smile for their online followers during the livestream, and then, like colleagues, sit quietly beside each other. And whenever Liliana enters the room, Milla becomes so subdued, so repressed that she seems to shrink beneath the weight of her environment. For Milla, the mansion is a gilded cage.
 

What are the filmmakers trying to convey through their psychological thriller, A Normal Woman? Given that Liliana treats Milla like a marionette, and later, a woman named Erika (Gisella Anastasia), seduced by all the wealth, tries to take Milla's place, one possible message is that women don't always need patriarchy to be suppressed. Sometimes, they end up competing with and undermining each other. Angel (Mima Shafa), Milla and Jonathan's daughter, receives nasty comments on her posts that force her to consider plastic surgery as an option to beautify herself. Are Kuswandi and Cung implying that girls face constant pressure to attain physical perfection by emulating the appearance of models? Novi, too, utilizes Milla's beauty as a means to achieve a stable financial future. These messages, however, are embedded in the script in the form of bullet points. There is no expansion, no bite, no depth. Moreover, Kuswandi approaches the material with literal-mindedness. He employs simple, flashy tricks and lacks a distinct visual style (the camera rotates, inverting the image and accentuating Milla's descent into madness). As a result, even the body horror sequences are rendered timid, stripped of any hallucinatory madness. What we are left with is a film that has a predictable story and predictable images. Cung and Kuswandi, in fact, leave many elements undercooked and rush towards the finish line. Milla gets her happy ending, but we are left scratching our heads. 

Final Score- [2/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times