I am not exactly a fan of Kim Chiu or Gerald Anderson, but I like them both. They epitomize youthful exuberance, ambition and early success, and there’s nothing sweeter than seeing them grow before your eyes. They have evolved from hopeful reality TV stars into some of the biggest names in the business.
So their boobtube success finally translates into another movie together! Did we like it? Did we feel we got our P160’s worth? To be honest, I wasn’t jumping with joy when I left the theater. For one, we feel that the female protagonist is a study of embarrassment and shamelessness. I shall get to that in a bit.
But cinematic relationships are not made in heaven as when Bogs gets dumped in favor of Anna’s boss. As he grieves for his lost love, Mae offers her affection and soon declares her love to the spaced out Bogs. He accepts! He is that impressionable! And all seems well at la-la land. Suddenly, Mae gets a make over. Her spectacles disappear; her hair gets a perm, then as luck would have it, Anna returns to claim what she feels is rightfully hers. Where does this leave Mae?
From the start, I had a problem with their relationship as “bestfriends”. This was one without a sense of entitlement. The narrative offers them on a platter without historical clarity- but for a stack of photo-shopped framed photographs; no high school or college past; no childhood memories – in fact, Bogs doesn’t even know JC (Robi Domingo) who was Mae’s childhood friend (JC once said he won’t ever marry anyone else but Mae). To encapsulate this, what they have is a one-sided relationship that’s based on Mae’s infatuation - and devotion. In my book, that doesn’t constitute friendship. Thus Bogs becomes a selfish prick of epic proportions – one who’s easily swayed by words - and one who attains epiphany as he flexes his biceps at the shower!
Kim Chiu is given half a dozen highlights and though she works hard with every morsel of her emotive capacity, she, unfortunately doesn’t make the grade. She falls short and appears shrill, her characterization superficial and spare. This was evident during her confrontation with her dad (Ricky Davao) at the dinner table; then again on top of a fire truck while a raging fire blazes over (an anticlimactic, badly executed scene). Kim’s emotive sincerity feels inadequate. I would have thought she had a lot of on-the-job experience after 3-4 years of teleserye, right? But all this is probably remediable with real life experiences. She is young and obviously talented - thus has a lot of potential for growth.
Gerald Anderson, on the other hand, has never been expected to pass muster as a dramatic actor. He has a face that’s too good looking to pass for a serious actor. In fact, except for being drop dead gorgeous, nothing much is expected from Mr. Anderson except look cute doing his noodle dance. Alas, how can we be so wrong? Gerald has been turning up very credible performances. He experiments with real emotions – he even gets too eager at times - and all this is manifested on screen. Whatever excesses should have been easily reined in by an intuitive director! In retrospect, Gerald comes off better than Kim. He could have been awkward is several silly scenes – like when he literally begs in front of Anna to stay with him while the new beau (Bernard Palanca) looks on; like when he professes his real feelings on top of a fire truck. Even his scenes with Zsa zsa Padilla (the delinquent mother ) are quite affecting.
Paano Na Kaya presents us with characters that aren't quite real. Do you actually buy Kim as this business girl who can sell 1,500 shirts in a day? Not when she stutters and shrieks in front of her irate customers, then even before she closes the deal, she turns her back and accepts a phone call, all the while calling her customers “Mga intsik…” within their earshot! Plus there were awkward lines that don’t belong in highly charged dramatic moments while the leading lady is shedding buckets: “Shinota mo ang bestfriend mo!” (And you hear the whole gallery laughing!) Mae was accusing Bogs something that she should have told herself. After all, she was the one who offered herself at the time when he was most vulnerable! She was the subtle manipulator!
So - shame on you, Mae! You deserve your broken heart! Ikaw kasi, “shinota mo” ang bestfriend mo!
As we left the cinema, we heard 3 girls saying, “Ampanget!” Then one of them giggled, “Pero ang pogi ni Robi!”
She was right! If Star Cinema needs a 3rd body to cook up a triangle that can match up with Gerald’s boyish charms, Robi Domingo perfectly fits the bill! He registers handsomely and his features complement that of Kim’s. Robi looks ill at ease, even awkward in some of his scenes, but remember how bad Kim was when she did her first sitcom (“Aalog Alog”)?
Move over Kimerald, here comes Kimbi?
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