Antoinette Jadaone's "Beauty in a Bottle" - In Pursuit of Beauty and Youth

Vilma (Assunta de Rossi) is a hotshot advertising creative director who has been in the business for 20 years.  When a new anti-aging product requires fresh ideas from progressive young minds, Vi's time-tested acumen is put to a test. Will she be as contemporary as brazen new rookie and younger colleague Tanya (Ellen Adarna) who's expected to clinch the Belo product? Her boss Santi (Carmi Martin) isn't promising her the account just yet.

Meanwhile, upcoming actress Estelle Suarez (Angelica Panganiban) is fighting a seemingly losing battle with the bulge. Her co-star Empress (Empress Schuck) is stealing the spotlight from her.

When Estelle is pitted against Empress for a lucrative product endorsement, it didn't even take the competition 5 minutes to clinch the deal. During Estelle's go-see/auditions, she is subjected to more embarrassment that reduced her to a shrinking mess. How will she grab the project from Empress' arrogant grasp?

Judith Madamba (Angeline Quinto) is an aggressive realtor, selling 10 units in six months. But her enterprising successes don't translate to her personal life. She's weighed down by issues of self-esteem. In fact, she feels she doesn't "fit" in the social circle of his boyfriend Pocholo's (Tom Rodriguez) wealthy family. She just wants to impress them so. In her sheer paranoia, she ends up making a fool of herself.  

Three disparate lives intersect in Antoinette Jadaone's rollicking "Beauty in a Bottle", a cinematic dissertation on people's penchant for physical beauty and corporeal perfection. While we aim to be paragons of pulchritude, we forget that we have limitations we need to embrace to be able to truly find happiness and contentment.

In brisk, effortless strides, the movie is both insightful and downright hilarious, reminiscent of the verve of Ishmael Bernal's "Working Girls" made 3 decades ago.

The movie is buoyed by its finger-snapping pace and exceptional performances from its zany cast, particularly Angelica Panganiban as the eternally insecure actress Estelle and Assunta de Rossi as the aging advertising executive Vilma. Panganiban's audition scene and her shooting sequences ("Come back to the young and beautiful you.") are nothing short of brilliant, and are testaments of Panganiban's indisputable versatility. Quite frankly, it's hard to think of someone else who can evenly shift from drama to comedy, with flying colors in both.

De Rossi displays impeccable comic delivery and timing as she rolls with the narrative punches. What have Assunta and Alessandra's parents been feeding the girls that turned these siblings into spectacular actresses, one wonders? Empress plays a deliciously scornful version of herself, and comes up with one the year's most illustrious cameos, the consummate rival to a magnificent Panganiban.

How did Angeline Quinto fare? Not so badly actually. Though visibly awkward in a few scenes, Quinto breezes through her role with wanton enthusiasm, valiant enough to take thespic risks. This, after all, isn't her forte. But with temperament written to suit her personality, it's hard to make a false move. This is Quinto's card to a legitimate acting career.

Framed by thoughtful "steps to attaining success" (Step 1 - Just say yes; Step 4.1 - Know your product; Step 10 - Research, research, research; Step 48 - Check on your competition; Step 28.1 - Be better than your competition; Step 39 - Savor your success), the movie percolates with winking charm and raillery. It is provocative, upbeat, and pokes fun on our misperceptions and insecurities. It allows scrutiny of our thoughts on beauty and youth. How far are we willing to pursue them? Do they guarantee success? Or happiness? The film also gathers some of contemporary cinema's most brilliant and dynamic artists: Chris Martinez, Whammy Alcazaren ("Islands", "Colossal"), Atty. Joji Alonso, and of course director Jadaone ("Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay").

This collaboration results into one of the year's most exuberantly exhilarating films. What's better? It screened to a good and receptive crowd. I like that. Great films deserve no less. This allows film makers to churn out more of quality cinema. As a paying audience, this is money well spent.

Gorgeous Tom plays Angeline's boyfriend Pocholo.

Chito Rono's The Healing - The Sick, The Dying & The Doppelgangers

Like many people who get frustrated by the limitations of medical science, Seth (Vilma Santos), an insurance executive, takes her ailing 74 year old father (Robert Arevalo) to Manang Elsa (Daria Ramirez), a renowned faith healer. After some incantations, they were sent home with a medicinal concoction for her stroke patient. To her surprise, the next day finds the old man completely rid of stroke – strong, ambulatory and even virile! Tatang is given a new lease in life. And he starts living his days like they were his last. News travel fast. Soon, Seth’s house becomes an infirmary of sorts, with her circle of friends gathering and seeking her help for a coterie of complaints: a breast mass, diabetes, psoriasis, pediatric blindness, etc. Would Seth – pretty please – accompany them to Manang Elsa? Heck, even her ex-husband’s daughter Cookie (Kim Chiu) is afflicted with kidney disease, and she's gradually wasting away!

Seth takes her friends to the healer, but Manang Elsa refuses to see anyone. “May sakit s’ya at tumigil na s’ya sa panggagamot,” explains Melchor, Elsa’s son. They refuse to leave the shaman’s house. A lot is at stake: a medical clearance for work in the Middle East; an approaching wedding; a life free of cancer, etc. The old woman finally acquiesces and accommodates her assertive visitors. Everyone goes home hopeful, but few of them remain skeptical. One by one, Seth’s friends experience the miracle of healing - breast lumps disappear, gangrenous feet clear up, and blood sugar normalizes! Elsa was wrong, Ate Guy! “May himala”, indeed! Even Cookie’s blood dyscrasia and sallow skin clear up like magic! Everyone rejoices.

Then Seth starts seeing crows that appear incommodiously. She also sees doppelgangers of her friends; body doubles devoid of emotions. Then chatty Chona (Ces Quesada), who has always been good natured, turns amok. Is her strange demeanor related to the healing? Would it affect the other “patients” as well? Why is Seth’s father – the first to be treated – unaffected? 

The movie is an ensemble piece, held together beautifully by Vilma Santos though it’s easy to see it’s a walk in the park for the Star for All Seasons. It's a welcome respite to see Santos in a genre far removed from her bombastic dramas. I am a wee bit distracted by her “look” – she looked like our favorite Batangas Governor: thick rimmed glasses, corporate blouses, etc. I understand that she plays an insurance executive, but there has to be a difference between an insurance peddler and a governor, right? But I’m merely nitpicking. Santos is nevertheless a joy to watch.  

I am seeing Kim Chiu in a new light. This is a more adorable Chiu, devoid of her woe-is-me demeanor. She plays the sympathetic stepdaughter afflicted with Glomerulonephritis. Glomeru…what? It’s just a kidney infection, my tita said, who further shared, “We admit cases like that left and right. They’re easy to treat – like UTI - and could be managed as an out-patient case. So it’s weird hearing it as a fatal disease entity.” Sus, I thought it was analogous to a death sentence. J  But back to Kim, she was reasonably compelling. When she suddenly asked Seth, “Galit po kayo sa akin, Tita?” my heart went out to her. I wish Kim’s succeeding projects wouldn’t lay on the melodrama too thick, then I’d be happy to watch her again. In “The Healing”, Kim Chiu eschews an adequately fleshed out character.

SPOILER ALERT!

The rest of the cast should be proud as well. Martin del Rosario (Seth’s son and Cookie’s half-brother Jed) displays a strong cinematic presence that should guarantee him more screen work in the future. Other note-worthy portrayals include Janice de Belen as mother Cita, Joel Torre as Melchor (the healer’s son), Daria Ramirez as Elsa (the faith healer), Robert Arevalo (Seth’s father), Mark Gil (Seth’s former husband), and Pokwang (as Dubai-bound Alma). I am conflicted with Jhong Hilario’s participartion: his wig looked nasty (and fake). Dario, his character, got electrocuted. When he was taken to Manang Elsa, he was already dead. The healer went on to resurrect the dead which should be a taboo, for obvious reasons. And such action necessitates the claiming of another in exchange of Dario’s. Quite a valid scenario, if you ask me.

DOPPELGANGERS

In folklore, doppelganger – the paranormal double of a living person – typically represents misfortune or evil. These entities are a form capable of “bilocation” (St. Pio de Pietrelcina was said to have had such power), but in this light, they are harbingers of bad luck, and may portend illness or an accident. It can be an omen of death. The idea of doppelgangers exists even in Norse and Finnish mythology as well as in the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians. A popular poet, Percy Bysshe Shelly told his wife how he met his doppelganger. Few days later, the English poet drowned in a bay in Italy. Other historical persons who died after meeting their doppelgangers include Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. It is interesting therefore to encounter the Pinoy perspective on doppelgangers, violent creatures in Rono’s re-imaginings.  

One of my favorite scenes involves the monks at a Buddhist Temple. Since this scene is not exactly commonplace, the praying monks imbue it with a sense of mystery. Rono is quite good with employing local color that, as an audience, it’s easy to immerse oneself in the make-believe world we are witnessing. 

Director Chito Rono has created a feasible scenario that hooks his viewers from the start. After all, we have a rich and inherent tradition of interweaving faith, superstition and medical science. But what makes “The Healing” unsettling is its distinct plethora of events: patient gets healed; crows loom; doppelgangers appear; the patients crack up and go berserk, then turn amok.

In the narrative, chronology of events takes center stage to exploit paranoia and a rankling of supposition, not dissimilar to the “Final Destination” movies. Who follows whom? How will they perish? And Rono concocts this atmosphere of morbidity with inspired compulsion and rabid vehemence. When Ynes Veneracion leisurely saunters towards the concrete with a giant chopping knife while her husband (Allan Paule) stoops down at the center of the road, you want to hit a pause button. There was a chill running down my spine. You know what’s coming – and you watch in frustration until the deed has been consummated! Rono keeps his narrative clamorous all throughout.   

 “The Healing” is experiencing a slow burn – “a fuego lento”. In fact, it is doing an amazing business in its second week. In three different mall cinemas this weekend alone, I saw queues mostly meant for “The Healing”. This is good news for mainstream cinema that has suffered a considerable plunge in theater attendance from January to June 2012. Word of mouth sure works like magic.    

No Other Woman - Fun, Games and Infidelity

I chanced upon a late television show a few weeks ago that had two groups of the most flamboyant gay teens fighting over the loss of a cellphone (someone stole it and curiously returned it broken 2 weeks later). The show is called “Public Atorni” patterned after a US court show called “People’s Court”. The aforementioned court hears small claims, promotes mediation and dispute resolution. The show mostly tackles the pettiest squabbles that should’ve been dealt with among them than on TV, but hey, the livid accusations sometimes make for a diverting nighcap, i.e. if you’ve no better things to do than watch a female lawyer exercise her theatricality, with hilarious effects. Atty. Persida Rueda-Acosta, Public Attorney’s Office chief, hears the cases, then animatedly points to warring characters – “Asunto o areglo!” – as though her audience are a bunch of deaf dweebs. Besides, isn’t she aware that “pointing fingers” is actually bad manners? There are ethical books on this, so we’re prone to point that out. Anyway, we’re diverting!

The point being: Despite the almost trivial proceedings, the freewheeling verbal tussle between these pubescent homosexuals, you couldn’t help but listen and be amused! They have such florid ways of throwing verbal punches, not dissimilar to the smart exchanges found in comedy bars! They are entertaining and I was laughing myself out!

A few days ago, I watched Ruel S. Bayani’s “No Other Woman” and I could swear I’m transported back to that court house. It’s one drag show all over again! And though this was supposedly a domestic drama, I had the time of my life laughing away!

Capsule

Ram and Charmaine (Derek Ramsay and Cristine Reyes, respectively) make a loving young couple. Ram supplies furnitures for luxury resorts, but he struggles to rise above a negligent father and her father-in-law’s leering condescension. One day, he meets breezy and free-spirited Kara (Anne Curtis), daughter of the resort owner (Tirso Cruz III) he’s peddling his furniture wares at. Though Ram once vowed to be faithful, his resolve weakens where Kara’s concerned. After all, she knew he was married and she’s vowed never to be a “kabit” (mistress). This was just a consensual lay in the hay between consenting adults... with no emotional involvement!

Unfortunately, these trysts soon turn addicting (i.e. habit-forming). When Charmaine (Ram’s wife) begins suspecting there’s more to Ram’s constant disappearances, not to mention his hickeys, the philandering couple is already in too deep in their affair. They’re starting to care! That’s when Charmaine realizes that she must fight back and claim ownership to what’s rightfully hers. What becomes of Kara?

We’ve heard of such marital predicaments and situational narrative before, but what keeps “No Other Woman” entertaining is its campy approach to the arguments. Heck, even Charmaine’s mom (Carmi Martin) gushes with hissy lines as though she’s the anointed guru of relationships (she isn’t, her hubby’s probably jumping from one affair to the next): “Ang mundo ay isang malaking Quiapo, maraming snatcher. Maagawan ka. Lumaban ka!” Then: “Panahon na para i-pack mo na yang Lucy Torres mo, ilabas mo na diyan si Gretchen Barretto. Ako na ang bahala sa red stiletto mo!” And there’s more: “Ano ba’ng mahirap kalaban? Ang putang mahirap o ang putang mayaman?” Answer: “Pare-parehong puta lang yun!” I was going to stand up and curtsy, but I waited because I realized there could be more. I was right: “I’ll never be a pathetic boring housewife,” delivered with so much chili relish, my palate was clapping with glee. If you’ve heard the verbal exchange among the teen homosexuals in “Public Atorni”, you’d agree that they could fit perfectly into the film’s campy catfights!

Anne Curtis has always been competent with characters she's portrayed in the past, but that’s mainly because she coasts on her charisma and earnestness. "No Other Woman" is a departure from her usual girl-next-door persona (Yup, even her "Babe, I Love You" character was a doll!) In this film, Anne plays the delightful vamp to the hilt and doesn’t do badly as a concubine, which is a surprise since she is cast against type. However, it’s really Cristine Reyes who succeeds in controlled thespic strokes. She has obviously learned much from her older sister (Ara Mina, a great actress) how insight and sincerity are mined from within. When Cristine wails, “Bakit? May kulang ba sa luto ko? Pangit ba ako? Mababaliw ako sa kakaisip!” - you knew she meant it! And the film, and all its ill-advised humor, becomes real.

There are a number of mind benders in the story. You’re courting for trouble when you take your jealous wife to where your jealous mistress is - or is that such an alien concept? It was a hammer waiting to hit you in the head. And if such action wasn't meant to spite a lover, think of what Kara can do in her own territory! She is, if Ram didn’t realize, the owner’s daughter and is quite the power-wielding royalty in their own resort. She could castrate Ram if she wanted to. Of course, it makes for an explosive confrontation, but a realist’s option it sure isn’t. There’s more: Why would a “mistress” accept a wife’s invitation for dinner unless she’s bracing for a big meltdown. There are a couple of things worth noting here: delicadeza and guilt, not to mention “common sense”, but then maybe “sense” is farthest in the scriptwriter’s mind when he wrote this scene. In another, Kara shouts an accusation at Ram, "Minahal mo ba ako?" But wasn't she the one who smugly declared, "Shut up and kiss me, and don't you dare fall in love with me?" Who's contradicting herself?

Even the mistress' dad (Tirso Cruz III) is given acidic lines that might as well come from my Values Education teacher: "If you stop hating your father so much, maybe you'll turn into a better person." I was astounded. After all, he himself hated Ram's dad (a former friend and business partner who once defrauded him) so that line felt incongruent to the story. You do realize this overkill was unregulated. The audience would lap it up anyway, debah?

There's a lot of things that caught my (and my bff Iyaya's) attention in the movie: The hand bags are to die for, the shoes divine, and the bathing suits va-va-voom! Curtis and Reyes were such epitomes of beauty, and Derek overflowed with machismo! Unfortunately, all these don't make an excellent movie. It's gay fantasia filled with the most delectable battle lines, the ones we can only dream of using when confronted with usurpers in real life ("Baka makita mo pang nilagyan ko ng lason ang pagkain.") Otherwise, in a realist's world, the mistress clams up; the embarrassed wife runs home in tears; and there's no audience applauding a heated confrontation.

The last part turns messier than expected (Charmaine taunts Kara while the latter’s lounging peacefully by the poolside; Ram’s midnight visit into Kara’s room; the avoidable vehicular accident), each strain as manipulative – canny and circumspect – and “straight out of a cheap teleserye”. You bet!

Anne Curtis as lovely Kara



Anne Curtis





Cristine Reyes


Cristine Reyes


Derek Ramsay


Derek Ramsay


Derek Ramsay