STAR Cinema’s latest film brings back the tandem of Toni Gonzaga and Piolo Pascual under the direction of Bb. Joyce Bernal in quite a unique love story.
Another interesting fact is that the film is also actress Bela Padilla’s screenwriting debut. The film opens with Mark (Pascual), who is about to jump off Jones bridge when he sees Carmina (Gonzaga) hanging off a signboard just above the water, asking for help after a failed suicide attempt.
Mark comes to her rescue and the two eventually get acquainted.
After discovering their mutual desire to end their own lives, they decided that the best thing to do was to work together to achieve the best way to meet their goal.
One of my initial thoughts on the film was the fact that is touches on the concept of suicide, which is quite a sensitive topic.
I was curious about how the film would choose to deal with such an issue. Honestly, I wasn’t so sure about the way they were handling the situation.
The comical attempts kind of made me feel like they were treating the whole thing a bit too lightly. And for something a serious as this, there really should be a level of consideration before throwing in the many ways a person could end their life.
In the end, the film took the safer route, as it had integrated a more fantasy type of approach, and it managed to arrive at a resolution without totally digging into the issue at hand.
Not that it made it less appealing, but it makes you wonder what it would have been like if it took a more realistic approach to establish a more genuine understanding of the issue. But maybe the point really isn’t educating the viewers but to simply show how certain issues can affect people.
The build up towards the big game changing twist ended up not getting enough of a reaction as it should have. Maybe because somehow it got to the point when all these signs were thrown in your face, making it a bit predictable. So when it finally got to the big reveal, there’s this part of you that somehow feels like you have known all along.
I would like to think that the suicide was not really the main theme in the film. It was a big part, surely, but it was merely the device used to get to the bigger message that the film tries to share. At first there was this cloud of death looming over everything and it eventually cleared to uncover the greater thing behind it: life.
It tries to tell people that in the end, despite every obstacle, it’s the life you choose to live that matters. And I believe that in its own way, it still manages to get that point across.
Another thing the film achieved is that still makes you feel all the right emotions. You enjoy the initial feel good moments, you feel for the characters as deeply when things start to go downhill, and when things finally come to a conclusion, it leaves a lasting feeling. The lead actors manage to capture hearts with their endearing portrayal of their roles: Gonzaga, as the high spirited and charming Carmina and Pascual as the dark and brooding Mark.
You can see the level of commitment and passion they put into each scene which I think is one of the best things in the film. Plot-wise, it honestly could have been better, but still, it was a pretty bold move to delve into quite unexplored territory in Philippine Cinema.
It makes me hopeful for future projects that don’t just give you a fairytale to bask in, but it tells stories of what is really happening around us. As much as we would love to just drown in sunshine and rainbows, life just doesn’t work that way.
And this would sound a bit cliche, but that’s okay, because there was never a rainbow that came before the rain. I would give this a solid 8 out of 10.