Nanay Vi
In My Life, a Star Cinema production. Directed by Olivia Lamasan. Written by Raymond Lee, Senedy Que, and Olivia Lamasan. Starring Vilma Santos, Luis Manzano, and John Lloyd Cruz.
1. Something is wrong with the sound. The movie is loud, as in Michael Bay loud, but with the tinny maximum treble quality we associate with stereos in jeepneys. We’re used to the relentless overscoring of Star product, but do the actors have to yell at us too?
2. The cinematography is ugly. Everything has a blue-green tint. It looks like those cheap Hong Kong gangster movies of the 70s. They had an excuse: they were cheap Hong Kong gangster movies from the 70s. This one is a big-budget Star Cinema production starring ABS-CBN’s biggest movie asset John Lloyd Cruz and The Vilma Santos. For starters, they could afford to shoot in New York City instead of pretending Makati is Manhattan. So you fly everyone to NYC, stick around for months, and you decide to scrimp on the filters and diffusers? It does not compute.
3. Vilma Santos seldom appears in movies anymore, so when she does it is an event. In My Life is a good choice because she is allowed to act her age. Her character Shirley Templo (great name) is cute but frequently unsympathetic and even irritating, the way fussy old people who are set in their ways, who are resistant to anything new and never admit their own mistakes, are irritating. A human being! Wow.
But she is still Ate Vi so there will be dancing. The bagel guy, though: too ancient. The extras: Please.
4. The story is plausible, and even when it veers towards weirdness it’s acceptable weirdness—things that do happen in real life. The characters are well-drawn, and it’s refreshing to see a Star Cinema project in which all the characters are not consumed by the main love team’s melodrama. For starters there is no love team as we know it. The primary relationship is between Shirley Templo and her son’s boyfriend played by John Lloyd Cruz.
It is also refreshing to see a mainstream Pinoy movie in which the mother of a gay man already knows he is gay and thinks she has accepted the fact. We are spared those corny “Where did I go wrong?” speeches.
5. Big gamble casting John Lloyd and Luis Manzano as the gay couple—the audience is used to seeing them pursuing or being pursued by girls. It is a measure of the audience’s openness that no one said “Eeeeee” or laughed during their scenes together. It helps that the two did not play it swishy. John Lloyd is pretty good—in the emotionally-charged scenes, he knows how to use his eyes. Luis Manzano moves his facial muscles too much.
6. Of course the dramatic confrontations are still too long, loud, talky, and overwrought. You know that cinematic convention where the camera pulls away from the emotional encounter as if the characters’ pain is too much to bear? Pinoy movies don’t observe that convention. According to the rules of Pinoy movies, the camera should swoop in until we can see the characters’ pores and flying spittle. Apparently the audience demands suffering up-close.
7. The tranny character named Hillary dresses like Michelle Obama.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
September 19th, 2009 at 03:10
I saw the movie trailer and it’s like I saw the movie already sans the ending. Why they make trailers like that I do not know.
September 19th, 2009 at 08:21
i hate it that they make the Vilma character dumb by not being good in English
she is a teacher and a librarian right?
much time / film is wasted in the Pamela scenes
John Lloyd Cruz is brilliant esp on those heavy dramatic scenes
too talky on some scenes it make you squirm
September 21st, 2009 at 20:01
I agree that Ate Vi not being good in English was a cop-out. I think they only wanted to find a way to include humor into the film, and this may not have been the best approach. The “adapting to a new life, new work” angle would have been sufficient.
I must say, though, that in observing the deteriorating Philippine educational system these days, I’ve found out that being a teacher and/or librarian does not automatically mean fluency in English. It’s sad, but true. English proficiency these days has gone downhill, and many times it can be traced to the teachers themselves. Not all, of course, but it happens.
As for the film, I loved it. True, it was occasionally overwrought, as it almost always is in any Pinoy drama, but I did appreciate that the gay angle was treated as a “given” rather than the usual, overused manners.
JLC was extremely good in this film, holding his own against Ate Vi, who of course is an acting giant. Dimples Romana was also a surprise. Luis – average.
And what was the purpose of Rafael Rosel other than eye candy (which I really won’t complain about, hehe)?
September 21st, 2009 at 20:04
… “other than BEING eye candy,” I meant to write. :)