November 15, 2020
One night, call center executive Aimee Ruby Montenegro (Jasmine Curtis Smith) booked the services of @DAXXX99, the so-called "king of the alter world" who got booked by women who wanted commitment-less sex. However, when they met face to face at the motel room, it turned out that Daxxx99 was actually her college acquaintance Uno, aka Juan Miguel Dakila (Enchong Dee), who confessed that she was her first love back then.
As she had been hot-headed at work because of her "trust issues," Aimee decided to hire Uno to be her "secret constant," someone who could help her connect back to the real world, to help her become open and trusting enough again. Uno, thrilled that Aimee wanted to "keep" him as a partner, agreed to her terms, coaching her on how to relax and project (or "flex") the best of her. Will their relationship go beyond the business deal that it initially was?
Director RC delos Reyes aimed to shock and titillate from the get-go. The opening sequence had Uno defining what the "alter world" was, how it was an underground type of social media where people remain anonymous while expressing their sexual fantasies. Totally going against type, Enchong Dee actually agreed to have scenes of his bare butt pumping away at a masked female partner, or fooling around with an older woman with only soap bubbles protecting his frontal modesty. I guess they had to do these daring scenes because merely saying that Uno was the most in-demand call-boy in the alter world would never fly.
The female perspective of the alter world was expounded by Aimee's liberated friend Tina Morando (Via Antonio), who would extol the wondrous effects of sexual release in her stressful life. She was the one who pushed Aimee to go further than mere lurking in the alter world and actually taste what it is offering. She advised him book a man like Daxxx99 to "come to Mama," as she repurposed Meg Ryan's classic fake orgasm scene from "When Harry Met Sally" to teach Aimee how to emote during sexual intercourse.
As for Jasmine Curtis-Smith, this character was such a sharp departure from her sweet image, I could not help but feel protective of her. Since this role was so offbeat for her, I winced when she delivered a raunchy line, like when she paraphrased Julia Roberts line from "Notting Hill" -- "I'm just a wild girl sitting across a f***boy asking him to tame her." Thankfully, she knew how to set her limits of onscreen decency and did not engage in anything more daring than a prolonged kissing scene with Dee.
However for those who were in it for the sex scenes, all of this raunchiness came to an end after the first 30 minutes. The last 60 minutes was just the usual Filipino romantic melodrama, with all its cliche lines and situations. There was even an 11th hour appearance of a third party in the person of Ernest (JC Santos), Aimee's classy ex-boyfriend who returned from Paris to become their new boss, to complicate things. In fact, the word "alter"was not heard anymore until one final random remark in a climactic tell-off scene.
The aspect of this film that I liked best was the close relationship of Uno with his family. He had a teenage brother nicknamed Dos (Royce Cabrera), and their precocious youngest sister was nicknamed Tres (Rhed Bustamante). Their father (Richard Quan) owned a junk shop called "Gardo's Butingtingan" picturesquely located beside the Pasig River. This cheery family wholesomeness was a welcome oasis amidst the moral depravity of this seedy online alter world, yet another disturbing revelation about the younger generation of today. 4/10.
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