A whole new meaning to relationships

Film review: The Love Affair

MANILA, Philippines - How often will you watch a love story on the big screen? How many times will you also see a rehashed love story?

Star Cinema’s The Love Affair carries an old plot of a marriage gone sour. This time, it’s the girl who commits infidelity. That’s nothing new anymore. Remember Sinungaling Mong Puso, with Vilma Santos and Aga Muhlach in an illicit affair?

Even the title of the Richard Gomez-Dawn Zulueta-Bea Alonzo vehicle has been previously used by a Hollywood movie, Love Affair shown in 1994, starring real-life couple Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. The latter was a three-hankie weepie remake of 1957’s An Affair To Remember, starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.

Yet, audiences trooped to the theaters to catch The Love Affair. After watching the film, which had the theater packed even on a weekday, we were not surprised with the huge box-office draw it created.

Vince (Richard) and Tricia (Dawn) looked like an ideal and happy couple with three kids until he discovers she is cheating on him with his best friend, played by Tonton Gutierrez. This really angers him and inevitably, he drifts away from her. Though they continue to live under one roof with the kids, he stays in the guest room.

It’s not too long before he encounters Adie (Bea), a successful lawyer who jilted her fiancé, played by Tom Rodriguez, after seeing his video having sex with another girl. Subsequently, Adie gets into a minor car accident and Vince who’s a doctor, is in the right place at the right time.

The broken-hearted ones met again in a café and yet again in a weekend sailing get-away, where they bonded together calling themselves "Team Sawi." That led to a regular sailing rendezvous and the love affair of Vince and Adie, his mistress.

The Love Affair gave a whole new meaning to relationships, marriage in particular. Never mind the film’s rehashed plot. While there may have been a few lapses, the story was clearly carried out. Take a bow, director Nuel Naval, you deserve the accolades and the crowd-drawing power that your big screen directorial debut is now enjoying.

Dawn has remained beautiful and youthful-looking through the years, even after more than 20 years since she did Hihintayin Kita sa Langit with Richard. For his part, Richard is still as dashing as ever as a leading man.

The Love Affair carried a few sub-plots like Adie’s relationship with her father (Al Tantay) and his partner played by Ana Capri; Vince’s career as a surgeon and his relationship with his fellow medical practitioners; the death of Vince and Tricia’s eldest son, which caused an early dent in their marriage.

The confrontation scene between Dawn and Bea was strong yet restrained. No shouting, no hair pulling, no slapping, no tears normally seen in most films with women fighting over a man. Both ladies were sophisticated even if they hated each other. They managed to contain their emotions and talk in a subdued manner.

Worth noticing in their respective supporting roles were Victor Silayan as the lawyer of Vince, Ina Feleo as the close friend of Adie and Roeder Camanag as the designer-friend of Tricia.

Sadly, there were stars who were underutilized in the film. It’s either they had very minor roles with hardly any dialogue or they had very brief exposure that you would not remember they were in the movie — Alex Medina, Tetchie Agbayani, Ariel Ureta, Lloyd Samartino and even the young Khalil Ramos.

Former Pinoy Big Brother teen housemate Manolo Pedroza was given a prominent role as one of the kids of Richard and Dawn. Yes, Manolo was noticed, but he had no major scene like the one given to Jane Oineza, the couple’s only daughter who had a confrontation with Bea.

Among the three children, it was Grae Fernandez who had considerable dialogue and acting exposure. Aside from normally seeing him singing and dancing on TV as part of the all-male quintet Gimme 5, the good-looking Grae proved in The Love Affair that he is really a chip off the old block. The acting bug was passed on to him by his dad Mark Anthony Fernandez and even his grandparents, Rudy Fernandez and Alma Moreno.

The Love Affair is rated R-13, apparently because of the love scenes and some vulgar language. Still, the film romped away with millions at the tills and it is now on its second week. As of Aug. 17, it has breached the P100M mark after only six days.

Richard, in his Instagram account, posted this message, “Thank you to those who have seen this beautiful movie about love, forgiveness and family.” Really, Richard-Dawn remains a formidable tandem not just on TV (remember their comeback in Walang Hanggan?), but even on the big screen. Clearly, their magic as a love team still works.