Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Review of MY CANDIDATE: Cultivating Charisma

May 3, 2016




The heated national elections are already set on Monday next week. The news is filled with news about all the candidates, both positive (from their camp) and negative (from opposing camps). Director Quark Henares tackles a romantic comedy with a political flavor obvious from its title -- "My Candidate." 

Sonny Suarez (Derek Ramsay) is a rare breed of congressman who really seriously worked with and for his constituents. As a promise to his father on his deathbed, Sonny reluctantly agreed to throw his hat in the race for Senator. However, while he is good-looking and had a clean reputation, he was a socially-inept. He lacked the personality and charisma needed to launch a successful national campaign. 

His overeager chief of staff Coco Mikael (Nico Antonio) hired popular communications coach Billie Pono (Shaina Magdayao) to make Sonny over in order to make him more appealing to the voters by making more effective speeches in public. It did not help that his closest rival for that last Senate slot just so happened to be his ex-girlfriend Congresswoman Vera Sanchez (Iza Calzado). 

Honestly the story felt very familiar to me. With Derek Ramsay also starring as the "student" being trained by a ditsy "trainer" who had a problematic private life of her own, "My Candidate" seemed to be a retooling of the plot of the very successful Metro Manila Filmfest 2014 2nd Best Picture winner "English Only Please." Only now, Shaina Magdayao takes over the teacher role from Jennylyn Mercado.

I was hoping that it would go more for the political angle as it was the unique selling factor in this film. While watching the first half, I thought I was going to see a "Our Brand is Crisis"-type story set in the colorful Filipino electoral circus. Ultimately though, it focused more on the rom-com scenes in the second half, which I found rather distracting to the light-hearted yet sensibly effective socio-political commentary this movie was making. 

Of course, it was not that easy to believe that the epitome of Filipino macho-hood Derek Ramsey would be lacking in self-confidence. He had to convince us that his character was such, as he was actually quite successful doing so. In those scenes where he was learning to let go and dance, Ramsey looked as if he was absolutely uncomfortable with what he was doing, which fortunately translated very well as a geeky lack of confidence.

This film is supposedly Shaina Magdayao's first rom-com, and she delivered very charmingly with her erratic character Billie. She came across better in the dramatic parts than the comedy parts, which I guess was not really her comfort zone. I just wished they did not have to make Billie strike all those which hip-hop moves did not look very natural on the demure Ms. Magdayao. I also did not like those tattoos she was made to sport on her arms. Despite being the lead character, we do not know much about Billie. We see Al Tantay's name apparently as Billie's dad, but I do not even recall seeing him onscreen.

Iza Calzado made the most of her smaller role, shining most in that political ad video of her character which was hilarious. Nico Antonio is scene-stealing as Coco in this familiar effeminate persona of his. His sidekicks, Adonis (Jay Ignacio) and Marga (Happy Ferraren), were equally scene-stealing albeit not necessarily funny. Ketchup Eusebio, playing Billie's scandalous friend Jofer, was overused. He overstayed already after his role in the beginning. Ricci Chan and Jun Sabayton, playing a couple of bitchy showbiz TV reporters, were misused and underused. The critical role of the press could have been developed more.

The light satire approach it employed was alright actually, as it did not really have to be so hard-hitting or serious to get its message across. I felt "My Candidate" could have been more interesting if the filmmakers decided to explore the local election culture more. This film was good when it was about the election and politics (though they only scratched the surface), but it became generic when it was about the individual characters. The romance part (which was not really necessary) could have been just a minor side-issue at the very end maybe if they really wanted it to end that way. Well, it is a rom-com first after all. 5/10.


15 comments:

  1. I don't think that this movie is of any interest of mine because of the story line they have and believe it could have been better.

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  2. I have been seeing promotions for this movie but I never gave it a second glance. Maybe because the actors do not appeal to me. I think I will be skipping this one.

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  3. Your description of the plot DID remind me of Our Brand is Crisis! Haha... Sorry to hear this ain't exactly a very good film~

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  4. Election time is always interesting and entertaining. People's opinions are all over the place and it's crazy. I think this movie would have been great if it focused on that.

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  5. This one sounds a bit disapponting, because it says more about the romcom than the actual background which is the elections. I do hope they make more films on serious matters but balance it out well with comedy, and not have the romcom part overpower the whole thing.

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  6. Something to look forward. I have seen the trailer but not sure if I did get it exactly. But will definitely take a look at this movie during my free time, I hope during its launch! :)

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  7. I have also watched the trailer but I think I will have to take another time to watch it again.

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  8. The title and the poster got me, especially the first paragraphs of your review. But when there was a shift to the rom-com...well, I like rom-com movies, but I would want to see the story centered on election though.

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  9. There seems to be elections world over right now! Certain regions of both India and UK has elections right now. Right time to come up with this movie.

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  10. Can't deny election poses a great attention in every spectrum of life. Different rants, opinions, by people filters the air. I like the review of the movie. Cool!!!

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  11. They should have shown this much earlier as the election has gone crazy. I think I would like to watch this one because of the theme.

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  12. Never noticed any trailer or promotions of this movie. I might give it a skip.

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  13. Never heard of this movie until now. Not my type of movie however so even if it came on DVD here I might pass it over.

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  14. i would say this sounds a film that is quite predictable. id rather skip it

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  15. It quite a novel plot with wordwide elections being big news right now. It a shame that personal lives drove the story away a little but I guess that happens in real life press too.

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