A gem of a movie

Film review: Dear Other Self

MANILA, Philippines - In seeming atonement for having foisted upon the movie-going public the KathNiel film called Can’t Help Falling In Love, Star Cinema’s latest offering gives us a gem of a slice of life movie dealing squarely with the far-reaching consequences of one’s choices and apparently mundane occurrences.

In Veronica Velasco’s well-crafted Dear Other Self, Jodi Sta. Maria plays Rebecca “Becky” Macadaeg, a working girl from a working-class family whose patriarch, deftly played by veteran stagehand Bodgie Pascua, is an independent mechanic. His character is married to a sometimes-cantankerous but more often sympathetic housewife, played by Carla Martinez with much warmth and depth. Becky has a younger brother in Paul Salas’ character who has a girlfriend in Elaine Ochoa; together, they round off the Macadaeg Family.

In a style that was obviously borrowed from the 1998 movie Sliding Doors, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, the two-movies-in-one work presents dichotomous scenarios side-by-side. In one, Becky, waking up haggard for having been kept up late by the noisy neighborhood karaoke singers, suffers one mishap after the other on the way to her work in an advertising agency, flubs her presentation is pressured to resign, and thereafter audaciously embarks on her dream to become a travel blogger by going solo to Thailand on a shoestring. In the other, well-rested after a blackout silences the neighbor’s sing-along machine, she makes a great impression on her company’s new client, is given a car as a reward, gets a satisfying romantic life at work, and stays home to help her family.

In the first scenario, she meets fellow Filipino expat Xian Lim in Bangkok; they fall in love and travel around Thailand. In the second, she falls in love gradually with surly work colleague Joseph Marco, and the romance turns serious. The question the movie poses is thus this: If given a choice between fulfilling one’s dreams of world travel but on the cheap and away from family and friends, and a stable career path at home near family and other loved ones, which would one choose? Are the two mutually exclusive, or can one have both?

Jodi leads us to the answer — or lack thereof — with much aplomb and style. Drawing from decades of acting experience, she is a delight to watch as she essays the role of Becky with effortless ease, portraying the main protagonist as a typical corporate employee who is, all at once, poised, loquacious, independent and yet physically clumsy and emotionally vulnerable at times. While the movie is a light-hearted comedy, Jodi nonetheless demonstrates that she is one of today’s best actresses.

Xian is a revelation, having shed most of the acting mannerisms that fettered him in My Binondo Girl (2011), and consistently and convincingly underacted in his role as a Fil-Canadian globetrotter; kudos to direk Velasco for having guided the kid well. Joseph tries his best, and while some acting skills are in evidence, he still needs some work in the emotion-projection department. The support is also more than competent: Bodgie and Carla as cookie-cutter ideal husband and wife movie characters played their part very well, and Ana Luna as the mandatory best friend was refreshingly unobtrusive. A big null, however, were newbies Paul and Elaine, whose presence in the film was obviously merely to have them cut their acting teeth. They hardly registered, although they were not all to blame; their roles were totally lacking in substance, in an unnecessary subplot that went nowhere.

The movie itself is well-made: Tightly edited, well-photographed, with musical scoring kept to a minimum so that it does not distract. The story arc is also easy to follow, and the dialogue surprisingly naturalistic for a local movie. The segue from one scenario to the other is seamless, of course borrowing elements from the afore stated Sliding Doors as a sort of homage, yet injecting enough fresh takes to prevent it from being an out-and-out copy. Direk Veronica, who learned her ropes from indie movies, is truly one of those worthy of the jump into mainstream movies; her inventive approach to storytelling infuses much-needed energy into the local industry.

 In sum, Dear Other Self, while not groundbreaking, is a step in the right direction for Star Cinema, and shows the local movie audience what that studio can do better if it sets its mind to it. The same movie concept, given more star power — say, a top love team like KathNiel, JaDine or LizQuen — could have reached a wider audience and given fans a thoroughly entertaining film that stimulates their intellect and prepares them to watch movies other than the harmless fluff to which they have been accustomed. Verily, the movie is Star Cinema’s “Other Self”: What it can achieve if it makes the right choices.