April 22, 2025
After his mother Amparo (Max Eigenmann) passed away in San Francisco USA, Alex (Inigo Pascual) decided to come back to the Philippines to search for his long-estranged father Ipe (Allen Dizon). Bringing along his girlfriend Janet (Ara Davao), his first stop was their hometown in Arayat, Pampanga, where he met his father's brother Yoyong (Jim Pebanco), who suffered a stroke after being pressured by a real estate company to sell their farm.
Further clues brought Alex to the house of Yasmin (Angel Aquino) in Mindanao, who knew Ipe as Fayez, a man who converted to Islam to marry her. Fayez took a second wife Farida (Ara Mina). Thanks to his social media post, Alex's next destination was the town of San Sebastian, where an aide of the Vice Mayor Gwen Gueco (Mercedes Cabral) named Riza (Karel Kinouchi) recognized Ipe as Teban, a gay unstable vagrant-turned-janitor.
With "Fatherland," director Joel Lamangan was attempting to do an epic film, with a story of a family that would span decades of time and the whole country. Despite budget limitations, it was very ambitious, aspiring to be another "Aguila" (Eddie Romero, 1980) or "Hindi Mo Ako Kayang Tapakan" (Maryo delos Reyes, 1984). Lamangan got Roy Iglesias (who also wrote his "Mano Po" films) and gathered a big cast of veterans and newcomers to bring his characters to life.
There was a major detour involving Mayor Rose Chen (Cherrie Pie Picache), who abetted illegal immigrants to settle and get work in San Sebastian by bribing police, the BIR and the Immigration. Picache played Chen with tongue-in-cheek campiness, obviously a parody of a certain mayor who was raised in a farm and homeschooled. Richard Yap and Rebecca Chuaunsu led Chinoy actors who had roles in this part of the film.
Allen Dizon played three characters, although the first two were both hotheaded guys. His highlight was this one scene where he would transition from one persona to another in close succession, with Ipe speaking Kapampangan, Fayez Arabic, and Teban swardspeak. Inigo Pascual's Alex was mostly a passive bystander, but he got his big emotional moment in the climax of the third act, which he pulled off well despite distracting medical inaccuracies.
A distinctive directorial decision was placing Alex right in thick of the flashbacks as a silent witness to the tumultuous events in his father's life, which may look awkward. Lamangan and Iglesia tried to tie it all up in the final act with a polarizing explanation, but tackling too many side topics like land grabbing, suicide bombing, Chinese mafia and even female genital mutilation, tended to make the whole movie feel overstuffed and unfocused. 6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment