| The Most Beautiful Girl in the World takes place on the set of a reality dating show. A completed scripted show faked to appear real where women compete for some rich bachelor playboy. Until it coincides with reality, when the network owner dies but instead of leaving his estate to his son, he leaves him with a quest: find and marry the most beautiful girl in the world, and then inherit all of his wealth and assets. | | 2025
Directed by: Robert Ronny
Screenplay by: Ifan Ismail, Titien Wattimena, Robert Ronny
Starring: Reza Rahadian, Sheila Dara Aisha
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This type of premise is not new, following in the footsteps of one of the earliest, most famous examples literally called The Bachelor with Chris O’Donnell and Renee Zellweger. However, what this film strives to do different is where the good ideas come into play.
Right off the bat, playboy hero Reuben (Reza Rahadian), recognizes the trashiness of the show and especially casting himself as the bachelor which just makes the already trashy show even trashier. So he teams up with a female producer, Kiara (Sheila Dara Aisha), and talk how to flip the narrative, how to remove the misogyny, how to make it real and not exploitative. That concept of taking a reality dating show, removing all of the problematic elements to turn it into something fresh and interesting, is a great idea. I was all ready to settle down to watch them produce this new show while falling in love in the background (hey, this is a romantic comedy, and we all know the basic plot). The problem is the pacing is way off because this is actually a completely different movie.
Normally I would be all for turning the plot around not even half way into the movie to give us something completely different. However, the original premise was good, I wanted to see how they were going to re-imagine the show, but they just didn’t do that, the little we saw of the show was exactly the same. And the pacing is just so off, then it’s obvious something different is about to happen, which makes the movie feel uneven as opposed to inventive.
Still it is nice to switch things up and give us a different movie. The second half deals with Reuben’s mother, and the concept of dreams and the realization of said dreams while Reuben and Kiara have to fend for themselves. This also gives the audience a lot more time to get to know Reuben and Kiara and the two of them as a couple. A crucial element to any romance movie, and at least it is well handled here. Reuben and Kiara are also good characters, both together and on their own - another crucial part to any good romance.
The third act is a bit of a mess because it’s now time to tie up loose ends from the first act while re-integrating the completely different movie from the second act, and things don’t mesh together well. This is entirely on purpose but how Reuben has to handle things to make room for Kiara in his life is a bit distasteful for what was supposed to have been a feel-good romantic comedy.
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World kind of mimics the production of such a reality show. There’s a lot of cheap drama with an overly exaggerated score which just makes the movie feel like a soap opera or a bad TV movie. It’s better than that, so it’s unfortunate the other elements don’t help elevate it.
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