It Takes a Man and a Woman: To the Bottom of the Barrel

Directed by: Cathy Garcia-Molina
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.

4 years after her first Sarah-JLC movie, she has since gained an influential power in Star Cinema. Five of the biggest grossing Filipino films are directed by her (and all star John Lloyd Cruz).

That said, she is by far the most accomplished of the romantic-comedy/drama local directors lot. She can do anything. And what does Cathy Garcia-Molina do with that power?

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.

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.

La MMFF Est Mort, Vive La MMFF!

Finally, after today, it is over! Metro Manila Film Festival's monopoly of local cinemas is finally no more. And quite nicely, our first foreign film for January is none other than Ang Lee's Life of Pi contrast this with last year's The Devil Inside. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Filipino film, but not the sad sort shown every MMFF and was this previous film fest a punishment, with Thy Womb not even measuring up in my opinion. In earnest hope that next year some brilliant young director (or returning veteran director) will bring at least 1 sensible entry into the filmfest that respects our intelligence as consumers, let's look at the different type of movies shown every MMFF since the late 90s to present.

The Barrel Bottom Scraper

examples: Enteng Kabisote / Okay Ka Fairy Ko franchise, Tanging Ina franchise, Mano Po franchise, Shake Rattle and Roll

Once upon a time, some director managed to make a hit of a movieof genuine charm. Since it broke box office records, the studio thought to make a sequel. And show it on the MMFF. But since there isn't any more story that can be made of the material, the upcoming film now banks on its prequel(s)'s box-office to get buzz and revenue. And surely it would. But people would be so appalled by what they saw that next year, since it earned big bucks, the studio will produce a sequel and the people who detested it will watch it again anyway, in case it gets better, or just because, continuing a vicious cycle of feeding crap and the studio scraping the bottom of the barrel of a tired franchise in need of retirement.

The History Class

examples: El Presidente, Jose Rizal, Rizal sa Dapitan

It perhaps started with 1997's Rizal sa Dapitan then soon followed by the much lauded Cesar Montano vehicle Jose Rizal. It was a legitimate excuse of an entry. After all, an exposition of culture and history is more acceptable than a melodrama. Soon enough, they became a staple on our film fest, continuously proving that we don't want to take risks into creating a period drama about the common man during the Spanish colonization era. But we could. We just don't think we should because who'd like to see that? Personally, I think a lesbian / gay love affair between a slave and an educated mestizo would be an interesting film because we don't have any idea how homosexuality is treated during then. My Catholic School history textbooks didn't acknowledgment that homosexuality exists even in Rizal's Days. Or how about a brother-sister attempt to rescue their father arrested for charges of treason using their innocence and charm, but ultimately ends up with one of them killed and the other decapitated, left to wander the streets of Manila, ultimately inspiring a young Rizal (not revealed to the audience) to write against the Spanish.

The Family Affair

examples: Tanging Yaman, Dekada 70, Filipinas, Mano Po 1

Tanging Yaman was actually a good film, though I was like 4 when I saw it. Nevertheless, it was top-billed by great performances from Gloria Romero playing an ailing mother to two irreconcilable sons, Manzano and Delgado. The confrontation scene where Manzano promises that he'd leave not a single centavo to Delgado's name is perhaps one of early 2000s cinema's most memorable scenes. That was 12 years ago. Things have gone bad since then. Delgado has succumbed to cancer, Romero has modeled for Ricky Reyes, and Manzano ran for VP and had humble pie for dinner, now living on a career on TV game shows. What followed after Tanging Yaman's strong influence was a slew of cheesy family dramas that ape it. The tepid Dekada 70 and Filipinas, attempted but to no avail and soon we had the Mano Po 1, starting a another Bottom Barrel Scraping franchise for Regal Films. Family Affairs are either hit or miss, but mostly miss, with nothing but melodrama to buoy it along and an ensemble cast that struggle with poor material. I daresay, the fabled Oro Plata Mata was a Family Affair in a way Dekada 70 was not.


The Star Cinerma Cash Cow

examples: Dalaw, One More Try, I Love You Goodbye, 

A prominent and imposing studio in Filipino film industry, Star Cinema once delivered sensible films to the filmfest, but having suffered setbacks in their attempts in Dekada 70 and Bagong Buwan, films that failed to top the MMFF, they have since played it safe with formulaic melodramas or horror films or the Tanging Ina franchise. As per practice, a Star Cinema Cash Cow competes with another Star Cinema movie that is less advertised in their commercial breaks. By theory, a Star Cinema Cash Cow is less crappy than a Regal Film cash cow, but is almost always formulaic, safe, and sappy.


The CGI Mess aka A Bong Revilla Movie
examples: Bong Revilla films

Bong Revilla Sr. was decidedly Nardong Putik. Unfortunately for Jr here, he had yet to find out what he wants to become when he grows up. He has tried his hand at being Panday twice, then he became a robot maker from recycled junk in Resiklo, then he's Exodus, then he's now with Enteng and Juday. But if there's anything we can be sure of, it's that Bong's assumed identity is one to wear a sleeveless outfit revealing enough to highlight his thick arms but conservative enough to hide his man-boobs and flabs. And another, when there's a Bong Revilla film, trust his Imus Productions to color his film rife with poor CGI and a story written by an 8-year old kid. While we wait for Senator Bong Revilla to find his iconic identity, we would have to suffice with these CGI messes he is so proud of. Ladies and Gentlemen, Manila's Michael Bay, sadly.

The Tardy Horror Film
examples: Kris Aquino films (her acting alone is scary)--Segunda Mano, Dalaw, The Strangers, Sigaw

I have some reservations classifying Shake Rattle and Roll because more often than not, those movies are more of a comedy and a slap on our faces. Surprisingly, we are faced by these films, too late for Halloween, scaring us at Christmas Day. Almost always, these horror films do not intend to win any award. They are the most straight-forward and honest of the film fest entries. They are there for lovers who wants to chance a hug from their frightened mate. They are the most honest in a sense that they are only competing for money and not for awards and are the first to acknowledge that the MMFF is a money-making machine.


The Retirementville Special
examples: FPJ films, Dolphy films
When Dolphy was dying, people were saying all good things about the man and how he is an icon industry and how he made great comedy films. But in the not-too-distant past, Dolphy made several worn out comedy films like Home Along Da River, Nobody Nobody but Juan, and Father Jejemon, films that earned him tongue-lashing from not so forgiving critics. Prior to that, who could forget FPJ's attempts at Alamat ng Lawin, which was basically Panday that grew old and wanted to bond with kids. Today's Barrel Bottom scraper masterminds would soon find themselves taking up the shoes of Retirementville veterans.

The Pacquiao / Jinggoy / Currently Famous Person Vehicle aka the Oddball that No One Watches
examples: Wapakman, Panday (with a motherfucking shotgun)

If you remember that time when Pacquiao wore Spandex and acted to horrible script then I know how that feels, bro. Apparently, it is worth the cinema time. Almost always no one watches these films but their relatives and are the lowest of low in filmmaking, exploiting the starpower, if any, of the top-billed star in the movie.


The Rare Gem That No One Remembers
examples: Panaghoy sa Suba, Crying Ladies, Bridal Shower, Markova, RPG: Metanoia, Tanging Yaman
Color me weird by citing the above movies, but most of those were actually watchable movies. Panaghoy sa Suba was a brave attempt, using primarily Bisaya as its language and is composed with picturesque imagery. Crying Ladies was a great directorial feature by then-new Mark Meily, featuring a Sharon Cuneta casting off her leading lady image, opting for a more mature and motherly role that made the audience laugh and cry. Bridal Shower is a movie that made Alfred Vargas a name--his stripper paired with Cherry Pie's insecure aging single woman was the best part of it, making the movie work. It was a charming comedy that worked and was possibly Seiko Films' last good film. Markova featured Dolphy in probably his most heart-breaking role as an ageing gay man who was forced by Jap soldiers into sex work. The Gil Portes film featured fully fleshed out characters and great performances by Dolphy and sons. And yes, for some weird reason, my mom took me to watch this film with her, of all her sons. 2010's RPG: Metanoia was a breath of fresh and was, fortunately, not just a Star Cinema Cash Cow, it was a charming, heart-warming affair and a step forward in Filipino 3D animation. And lastly, Tanging Yaman, for the reasons I've stated in the previous number.

Sadly, as the sappy or poorly produced films keep raking in, we would be out of rare gems year in and year out and suffer the same sort of tosh the film fest delivers. But here's to hoping.