Cinepanalo 2025: Review of OLSEN'S DAY: A Troubling Twist

March 15, 2025

Olsen (Khalil Ramos) lived in Dagupan City with his elderly mother with dementia Agnes (Sherry Lara). He has been working as a researcher in a local news station in the city for eight years, with no promotion in sight. One November 1, he was asked by his boss to deliver a box of VHS tapes to their branch in Quezon City. There was no company service car to take him, so he had to drive his own car to do the job. 

Riding along with Olsen that trip was a talkative middle-aged man named Tony (Romnick Sarmenta) and his shy 10 year-old son who did not talk much named Tonton (Xander Nuda). Throughout the long drive, Tony and Olsen talked about mostly about their families. Tony talked about having Tonton at the late age of 50 and raising him on his own. Reluctant at first, Olsen opened up about his issues with his own father.

Khalil Ramos can really play these young men with angst very well, since teenage Felix in "2 Cool 2 be 4gotten" (2016), all the way to 30 year-old Olsen in this latest one now. Romnick Sarmenta experienced a resurgence in his career since his award-winning turn in "About Us But Not About Us" (2022), which was also another one long filmed conversation in one setting between two people like this one. It was their star chemistry that carried the film over.

In the first hour, this seemed to be a typical road movie where two strangers get to know each other better since all they did was talk during the car trip. It seemed pretty straight-forward from the time they left Dagupan, until Olsen dropped off his passengers in a hospital near Cubao. You'd think that was over right there, but it turned out to be just the start of the main meat of the film, what this story was really all about.

You can feel that co-writer and director JP Habac had a personal stake in this film, and it felt like a labor of love. It would have worked well if one does not give the twist much thought and just accept it as it happened. However, this type of thought-provoking twist does make you want to dissect what those scenes meant, especially in relation to how the characters acted in the first hour. Let's just say it was not executed as cleanly as "The Sixth Sense." 6/10.