12.12.2008

More Brandy Please

Your chest is so...

The popularity of Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes as a love pair in television could truly prop up their film One True Love. But this film is a bit more different. To view a film, you have to pay almost two hundred bucks for the admission (if you’ll buy food too) as compared to watching teleseryes or sinenovelas in our very home. As a matter of fact, before you can drag anyone to watch a film, it has to surpass the expectations of the majority who has already seen the film. One True Love has produced a schmaltzy love story which acquired the appalling sentimentality of the soap opera tradition.

Migs (Dingdong Dantes) is a neurologist who is engaged to a nurse named Joyce (Marian Rivera). Upon announcing their engagement to his family, his sister Ara (Bianca King) immediately informed Migs' past girlfriend Bela (Iza Calzado) and advised her to go back to the Philippines. After the wedding, Migs becomes involved in a motorcycle crash and suffers isolated retrograde amnesia. During the time of his recovery, Migs has lost all memories of his wife Joyce. But instead, he chooses to unite again with Bela.

The premise is pretty interesting and it is the only good thing I can say in the film. I can also forgive the clichéd/formula story and plot devices they have adhered to for the past few decades. But it is beyond the pale if they have abused the formula itself. It is also given and yet it is still not cohesive. Migs has amnesia and yet he portrays his character that he also lost all his good values and manners. He acts like a puppet manipulated by the creative core of this film production. This is not love anymore as love gives reverence to the very essence of showing it. A person who suffers amnesia might be a little stressed and shows embarrassment but definitely not to the point of being rude. Even if the character’s neurologists explained the side effects, the actor’s execution is unbearable. Joyce is another problem as she embodies the maudlin expressions of empathy without reasonable gravity. She did at some point in time manage to get angry but it still does not advance the way she should deal with love as a matured individual. Anyway, she gets the sympathy which is entirely the idea of it. Although in the long run, a good story does not need any of this cheap gimmickry.

It is disheartening to watch a film more so a film that tackles the universal language of Love and hate to see everything it has offered. The quality of the technicalities is satisfactory but the other essential foundation has been laid into a dull and gloomy terrain. The acting of the two stars is disgusting to imbibe. Good thing that Calzado gives a performance that could be well regarded as a decent performance and even the character appears to be the paramour.

One True Love is not in any way true love and I am certain about it. I am glad to hear in the news that it did well in the box office even the entire production looks a bit low-cost. Hopefully the money they get in this film will be used again in making a film (hopefully a 'decent' one). Audiences are easy to please. With the theme love, it is more trouble-free as we get to feel it not exactly the same as when others feel it. It is always unique. One True Love has integrated the fantasy love formula that has been here for years. It could be shameful to use. But if it has the certain ‘it’, it will have magic and not an abysmal ending.



Charlie Koon's Rating:

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