Stars: John Lloyd Cruz, Sarah Geronimo, Isabelle Daza
Likes
- Great performance from Cruz and Geronimo
- The whole cast is back!
- Loaded with allusions from previous films
- First and second act are hilarious
Dislikes
- The movie degenerates after its second act
- Troublesome consistency of Geronimo's character
- Ends up too inclined to traditional and conservative values
- Cathy Garcia Molina is stuck with her formula
Gist
Laida and Miggy grows up, but Cathy Garcia Molina doesn't. Stuck with formula and, worse, adopting the current trend for facebook-quotable dialog, Garcia-Molina serves a movie flush with potentials but far from the earnest and effortlessly fun work of its predecessors.
Synopsis
Laida Magtalas (Geronimo) returns from New York to do consultant work for Flippage Publications, where she met her ex-boyfriend, Miggy Montenegro, who has traded her for his ex-girlfriend Belle while she was away in Canada. The conflict between the two belies the emotions buried within each person's heart, wanting the other person back. And just as things are starting to get better between the two, the pains of the past come back and
The last Cathy Garcia Molina film I reviewed is My Amnesia Girl, starring Tony Gonzaga and John Lloyd Cruz. In it, I mentioned that Cathy Garcia-Molina found a formula that works and is seemingly planning to stick with it for the rest of her career. MAG actually surprised me even after all the formulaic tendencies that Garcia-Molina has. It had twists, it was frank, earnest, and funny without overreaching. I have also liked her other films. Her Hero-Sandara treatment for Bcuz of U is earnest and innocent, while her Sam Milby-Toni Gonzaga films are also one of her most emotionally heavy and funniest works--remember Purita Malasmas aka Sally? She has a way with character development and bringing out the quirky side of her cast. This skill has been put to great use in her Sarah-JLC works. The result: a franchise of multi-million proportions that none of her other works have surpassed.
First up, she executes an opening sequence reminiscent of Will Gluck's Friends with Benefits. While this is not completely unique to Friends with Benefits, I suppose, this execution will definitely strike some as lacking originality. There are a thousand ways to execute that opening sequence and I believe Cathy Garcia-Molina would've done better avoiding the execution she used (ie do an X-Men First Class vs Inception). Second, she sticks to the idea that Miggy (John Lloyd Cruz) will always need Laida's rescuing. Why does this always have to be the case, why is JLC forever the damsel in distress and Sarah Geronimo his knight in sunshine-laden weave? Third, and maybe a good thing, the film stuck to the light-hearted feel its predecessors have been known for. Cathy Garcia-Molina must be a firm believer that life is delightful--if not with its flaws that can be overcome.
Character development, a characteristic of CGM movies, happened mostly outside the movie--2 years prior--and we are presented with damaged versions of Laida and Miggy. Miggy Montenegro has gained weight and cares very little for what he's wearing at the office (a stark contrast of the autocratic, vainglorious Miggy of A Very Special Love). Laida Magtalas has now grown a penchant for theatrics and accent that would elicit laughter in New York. She must have watched Sunset Boulevard prior to showing up at the office. She's twice as showy as the old Laida. She's noisy, annoying (as Miggy commented), and self-confident. These new characters are easy to love even after all that said. Laida is still as funny--even if shes's challenging our capacity of belief, and Miggy's turn for the tragic is mighty heart-breaking. The fault perhaps is that Garcia-Molina trusts her audience remembers what these characters were like before and that you have watched the previous two films. Chances are, you remember only a bit. She does help to refresh your memory by throwing allusions, but the charm gets easily lost if you don't remember the things they are alluding to.
The first two acts of ITAMAAW were good--hilarious, light-hearted, and fun. Laida's first day of work as consultant was the high point of the first act, while the second act, when the conflict was introduced, is marked by two events: one is Laida finally crying to Miggy's karaoke singing, and the other when Laida's mom was giving her advice on how to forgive. Those two acts were funny and emotionally affecting. Laida's innocence was shown by Geronimo's vulnerability amid her wish to smile the whole day on set--a stark contrast to the quirky Laida 2.0 she's been displaying earlier.
After those two acts, the film's tone becomes inconsistent. The New York part felt particularly unnecessary or executed as unimaginatively as possible, which makes the chemistry between the leads feel forced. By this time, Garcia-Molina was forcing the kilig. And by the time the conclusion at the airport happened, I wonder how Miggy managed to pull such an act even if the prior events weren't closed properly.
The first two acts of ITAMAAW were good--hilarious, light-hearted, and fun. Laida's first day of work as consultant was the high point of the first act, while the second act, when the conflict was introduced, is marked by two events: one is Laida finally crying to Miggy's karaoke singing, and the other when Laida's mom was giving her advice on how to forgive. Those two acts were funny and emotionally affecting. Laida's innocence was shown by Geronimo's vulnerability amid her wish to smile the whole day on set--a stark contrast to the quirky Laida 2.0 she's been displaying earlier.
After those two acts, the film's tone becomes inconsistent. The New York part felt particularly unnecessary or executed as unimaginatively as possible, which makes the chemistry between the leads feel forced. By this time, Garcia-Molina was forcing the kilig. And by the time the conclusion at the airport happened, I wonder how Miggy managed to pull such an act even if the prior events weren't closed properly.
If you look at the franchise, what makes these movies engaging is that Garcia-Molina was tackling a number of things about the characters and tackling them with a skillful depth. For instance, in A Very Special Love, Miggy was cold and felt unloved, all while struggling to keep his magazine company from folding. This happens while Laida falls out of her infatuation with Miggy as Miggy changes and falls for her. In You Changed My Life, Miggy is now charismatic, but is still unaccepted by his siblings, and he and Laida are head over heels in love with each other but their work gets in between the way and an old flame comes into the picture. Garcia-Molina has stories to tell there. There was a lot of work to do and she managed to do them at a comfortable pace. In this sequel, there was little story to tell and she told it twice as long as she needed to.
In this third installment, Miggy disappoints practically everyone, Laida included, and Laida, for the conservative that she is, couldn't forgive a simple kiss that she had the misfortune of witnessing--and what a very contrived happenstance that scene is. That's about it. The drama was all on Miggy and Laida, unlike before where each has a backstory to deal with. Other than the need to get a publishing license for Metamorphosis, there was nothing else on the background. Laida's mom and dad were good already, and there was zero drama on Miggy's family (but, hey, CGM attempted). There was also no falling in love in this movie. Just a lot of hiding and holding one's self from basically telling the other that it's their fault. And these little backstories, they make for much character development and depth. These back stories that made the franchise, they are absent here.
And if you look at the movie in its pure conceptual form, the problem begins with the fact that a straight-arrow career girl falling (back) in love with a manic pixie dreamboy with a penchant for depression isn't as cute as a miserable, snobbish, unaccepted, dashing love child falling for an innocent, earnest, sunny assistant who says anything is possible (that sounded almost like Be Careful With My Heart) and ends with the fact that there wasn't really any strong resolution on display. I mean, come on, who doesn't like it when we see a handsome but strict young man lighten up because of a sunny woman--just look at Be Careful with My Heart. And then, there's the issue of forgiveness. Did I miss it? As far as I remember, I never heard Laida say that Miggy is forgiven, and wasn't that the idea of all this--that a sin was made and that it needed to be forgiven before one moves on? What I am saying is that I wasn't convinced with the resolution, if there was any. It was just love winning the day just because love does. Sure that can be true. But that's just lazy when one executes it that way.
Now, the movie is not all bad. It has its moments. And for me, the best parts of this movie is when they actually tackle the topic of forgiveness. The part when the team was shooting for their mock issue of Met and Laida was forcing herself to smile up to the karaoke part where she just breaks down and cry was so effective in courting genuine sadness and sympathy. Another scene that I find that worked well for the movie is the one where Laida's mom tells her about forgiving people who have wronged you. In another scene, Dante Rivero (Miggy's Dad) delivers a speech for his son in Filipino (and the foreigners are so intent at the video even if it's missing subtitles) about how all he wants for his son is to be a good person. For some reason this scene is both funny and effective even if it doesn't completely gel well with most of the movie since Miggy wasn't really a bad person, just an unlucky one.
In closing, I'd say that I had fun for most of the movie, but I struggled through the unnecessary things they added in. And while the performances from Geronimo and Cruz are strong, the overall consistency of the film's tone is a bit questionable and the emotional depth is missing more often than not. Laida and Miggy grows up, but Cathy Garcia Molina doesn't. She's stuck with formula and, worse, she's adopting the current trend for facebook-quotable dialog. Garcia-Molina serves a movie flush with potentials but far from the earnest and effortlessly fun work of its predecessors.
My wish is that this is the last of it. It may not have ended with the greatest execution possible, but I am satisfied with it well enough and I hope we can all move on. My fear is that anything after this will just be scraping the bottom of the barrel and, ultimately, I am afraid to learn that they have no more stories to tell.
Verdict: Unnecessarily long, has its moments, not as good as its predecessors, but still a lot better than most mainstream Filipino films these days. I'm giving It Takes a Man and a Woman 3.1 / 5 stars
For this movie, I am willing to pay 170 pesos. I paid 200 pesos.
PS: The poster for this movie is god-awful. I wonder how such amateurish photoshopping passed the approvals. Look at how fakely white and bright those teeth are and how pore-less the leads. Really terrible and fake-looking. And also, kudos for the most sexual-orientation sensitive title. Lol.
Erratum: I mistook One More Try, a film directed by Ruel Bayani as a Cathy Garcia-Molina film. I have now removed that from the review.
And if you look at the movie in its pure conceptual form, the problem begins with the fact that a straight-arrow career girl falling (back) in love with a manic pixie dreamboy with a penchant for depression isn't as cute as a miserable, snobbish, unaccepted, dashing love child falling for an innocent, earnest, sunny assistant who says anything is possible (that sounded almost like Be Careful With My Heart) and ends with the fact that there wasn't really any strong resolution on display. I mean, come on, who doesn't like it when we see a handsome but strict young man lighten up because of a sunny woman--just look at Be Careful with My Heart. And then, there's the issue of forgiveness. Did I miss it? As far as I remember, I never heard Laida say that Miggy is forgiven, and wasn't that the idea of all this--that a sin was made and that it needed to be forgiven before one moves on? What I am saying is that I wasn't convinced with the resolution, if there was any. It was just love winning the day just because love does. Sure that can be true. But that's just lazy when one executes it that way.
Now, the movie is not all bad. It has its moments. And for me, the best parts of this movie is when they actually tackle the topic of forgiveness. The part when the team was shooting for their mock issue of Met and Laida was forcing herself to smile up to the karaoke part where she just breaks down and cry was so effective in courting genuine sadness and sympathy. Another scene that I find that worked well for the movie is the one where Laida's mom tells her about forgiving people who have wronged you. In another scene, Dante Rivero (Miggy's Dad) delivers a speech for his son in Filipino (and the foreigners are so intent at the video even if it's missing subtitles) about how all he wants for his son is to be a good person. For some reason this scene is both funny and effective even if it doesn't completely gel well with most of the movie since Miggy wasn't really a bad person, just an unlucky one.
In closing, I'd say that I had fun for most of the movie, but I struggled through the unnecessary things they added in. And while the performances from Geronimo and Cruz are strong, the overall consistency of the film's tone is a bit questionable and the emotional depth is missing more often than not. Laida and Miggy grows up, but Cathy Garcia Molina doesn't. She's stuck with formula and, worse, she's adopting the current trend for facebook-quotable dialog. Garcia-Molina serves a movie flush with potentials but far from the earnest and effortlessly fun work of its predecessors.
My wish is that this is the last of it. It may not have ended with the greatest execution possible, but I am satisfied with it well enough and I hope we can all move on. My fear is that anything after this will just be scraping the bottom of the barrel and, ultimately, I am afraid to learn that they have no more stories to tell.
Verdict: Unnecessarily long, has its moments, not as good as its predecessors, but still a lot better than most mainstream Filipino films these days. I'm giving It Takes a Man and a Woman 3.1 / 5 stars
For this movie, I am willing to pay 170 pesos. I paid 200 pesos.
PS: The poster for this movie is god-awful. I wonder how such amateurish photoshopping passed the approvals. Look at how fakely white and bright those teeth are and how pore-less the leads. Really terrible and fake-looking. And also, kudos for the most sexual-orientation sensitive title. Lol.
Erratum: I mistook One More Try, a film directed by Ruel Bayani as a Cathy Garcia-Molina film. I have now removed that from the review.
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