Review of THE WRITE MOMENT: Fated Feelings

July 3, 2018

"The Write Moment" was first shown in cinemas as an entry to QCinema International Film Festival October of last year. It did not win any awards at the festival, but here it is the first film among the eight entries to be released in a commercial run. Its two stars are both supporting players who never had a lead role ever before this one. So there must be something special in this film for it to be picked up by a distributor.

Dave is an average joe who worked as a scriptwriter and photographer for weddings. One day, he was suddenly dumped by his pretty girlfriend Joyce, for no apparent reason. The poor guy could not move on from his miserable abandonment, so he wrote a full screenplay where he and Joyce wind up happily ever after. After the script was written though, it magically took over from reality and had to be strictly followed to the letter by all involved until its predetermined conclusion.

I first knew of Jerald Napoles as Tolits in PETA's "Rak of Aegis" in its first incarnation before he made a bigger name for himself on TV and film. As Dave, he played basically a similar character -- a guy who may be plain in the looks department, but had a knack for chessy "hugot" (or romantic) lines which girls find irresistible. He was the life of this film and the main reason why it worked.

Valeen Montenegro is a beauty, but  the script did not really allow her to do too much for her character Joyce. After the initial dumping scene, for the rest of the film Joyce was basically acting what Dave had wanted her to do in his script. So it was understandable that she was rather mechanical and lifeless in her portrayal (as you see in the poster), because that is not her will that was being done. 

The idea of its young writer-director Dominic Lim is quite interesting and thought-provoking. Would you like to write the script for your life that was sure to be fulfilled? In case you divert, you'll relive the same moment over and over until the pre-written, predestined event comes to pass. The film actually goes into the darker, twisted (like the Dali-inspired clock used as prop) side of love, but kept it light with witty lines. The promise is there, but you feel something more could have been done. It was fine, but I felt that it did not really gain too much momentum from its potential. 5/10.