ENGLISH ONLY PLEASE -- a breath of fresh air! If youve got to do a rom-com starring a half-Pinoy hunk being tutored in Tagalog by a perky Pinay (who can prove she could play a woman with multiple personality disorder on a TV soap) -- this is the way to do it! From the get-go, writer-director Dan Villegas (who won Best Director and Best Story with Antoinette Jadaone) offers neat pacing, witty humor and likeable characters. Some visual and aural gags abound (this is, after all, about the language barrier), cute gimmicks dont come off as cloying, and the fact that you know the unlikely pair will soon fall in love makes you want to watch it even more. Derek Ramsay, playing Julian Parker, a guy who wants to (a) get closure with the girl who dumped her, but he has to speak it in her language, and (b) get even with the girl, by spouting vitriol at her and all the piled-up resentments, wouldnt be your idea of a Best Actor, not especially for a Christmas film festival (the obvious choice would have to have been Coco Martin or Robin Padilla, or, heaven forbid, thunder and lightning strike Petrang Kabayo dead, for Vice Ganda to nab the trophy). But Ramsay is precisely a fresh choice, endearing, amiable, and devoid of shticks (admit it, we all liked his acting in NO OTHER WOMAN and A SECRET AFFAIR). Jennilyn Mercado (playing Tere Madlangsacay) is like a page right out of those campy Joey Gosiengfiao movies -- perky, delightful, endearing. Her scenes as she teaches Julian diction, elocution and enunciation, her tardiness irritating him no end, her penchant for street food giving him pause, and their final rehearsal of what Julian will say to his ex-girlfriend, are all neatly directed. Very little gimmicks are thrown in (except for the catchphrase Kitakits bhe and for the slew of out-of-this-world online applicants eager to tutor Julian), and Kean Cipriano is perfectly horrid as a louse/golddigger/two-timer who takes advantage of Teres gullibility. A very familiar situation for Filipino families, where somebody sends money back to the province but the money is squandered repeatedly, is delicately tackled by Villegas, but the happy ending seemed to have forgotten about it (or are we to assume Tere will just forgive all and sundry?). Cai Cortez (as a plus-sized friend who falls in love with the wrong men, one of them played in a cameo by Alex Medina), Ian de Leon (as Teres wasteful brother), Lynn Ynchausti-Cruz (as Teres mousy mother) and Isabel Oli (as the girl in question, that is, Derek Ramsays ex) all provide solid support. Amazingly refraining from mugging it up, as he did shamelessly and mercilessly in PRAYBEYT BENJAMIN, is Tom Rodríguez, as Isabel Olis dashing fiancé. Child star Lenlen Frial is cutesy as Cai Cortezs excess baggage with disarming one-liners. Villegas movie is truly a breath of fresh air (amidst a slew of campy horror films and two serious biopics), and while it trailed behind the Big Three (Vice Gandas, Vic Sottos and Kris Aquinos movies) during the immediate first three days, on the day I watched it was full (thanks in part to Ramsays and Mercados Best Acting awards). (The film also won Best Screenplay by Jadaone and Best Editing by Marya Ignacio and 2nd Best Picture). This is perhaps non-sequitur, but I wish the same success for Sam Milbys upcoming EX WITH BENEFITS (subliminal title: EX WITH BENEFITS AND AMERICAN ACCENT).
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 15:11:28 +0000