Allison Castillo, 32, met Nick Gutierrez, 45, at a hospital in Vancouver, Canada. From the onset, Ali admitted to Nick that she had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and that she needed a heart transplant. Despite this, she felt confident that a relationship between will prosper. On the other hand, while he enjoyed Ali's company a lot, Nick was hesitant to give love a chance. Ali's charm and kindness won Nick over eventually, such that he wanted to be able to do whatever it took to help her get well.
Bea Alonzo gave such an irresistibly winsome performance as Ali, it was impossible for anyone not to fall head over heels in love with her. Her smile was just so radiant and her charisma so vibrant that she could easily break down any man's resistance. It definitely did not look like Ali had any serious heart disease at any time, yet with Bea portraying her with such sincerity, we never doubted her health condition.
Aga Muhlach had not played a leading man in a romance for a long time. I could sense some tentativeness in his performance as Nick, as if he was nervous or unsure, though these were qualities of his character as well. While Aga still got his movie-star good looks under those glasses and beard, there was oddly an uncertain, uneasy romantic chemistry between him and Bea, not an instant nor compelling one.
Sandy Andolong was constantly dour and unsmiling as Ali's concerned mother Bernadette. Albie Casino was against his usual bad boy type of roles to play Ali's gay younger brother Sebastian. Edward Barber was a natural playing Nick's nephew Simon who was dealing with the death of his father. It was good to see the beautiful Ms. Giselle Toengi again onscreen as Simon's mother Vicky. These characters were not really necessary in the main love story, but were just there to give Ali and Nick additional dimensions.
The cinematography around Vancouver and its various scenic spots looked very glossy, but felt like common backdrops already as far as local romances go. For a recent example, a scene set on a long rope bridge was also in "Nakalimutan Ko Nang Kalimutan Ka." Mining the 1970s for a catchy ballad ("Ikaw Ang Aking Mahal" by VST & Co.) to use as a love theme was cool, but "Goyo" also did just that ("Bato sa Buhangin" by Cinderella) to more LSS effect. That Nick wore an astronaut suit to a costume party was a nice touch, but Sam Concepcion just did that in "Para Sa Broken Hearted" just last month.
I thought the pace taken by director Paul Soriano was rather slow and meandering, as if to overemphasize the melodramatic nature of the story. Aside from that one major plot twist which was necessary, there were also several needless detours and repetitive issues just used to prolong the running time and to delay the inevitable. There was strangely no emotional payoff for me at the end, maybe because I was already expecting it already long before it happened. 6/10.
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