September 24, 2021
After their father died, 18-year old Mia (Rhen Escano) had to go live with her elder brother Joonie (Melvin Lee) who had long been estranged from the family because of his homosexuality. A middle-aged neighbor Peter (Jao Mapa) helped carry Mia's luggage, and Mia was immediately smitten with his good looks. One day, Peter's common law wife, barangay captain Giselle (Gwen Garci), hired Mia to teach the tech illiterate Peter about the computer. There was sown the seeds of an illicit affair.
The title of the film "Paraluman" means "muse" and it referred to the pretty Mia being the muse of Peter, who was the town photographer. He still used an old film camera and developed his prints himself at home. With Giselle and Joonie very busy with their work, there was a lot of opportunity for the idle Peter and the lovestruck Mia to fall into a forbidden love. There was nothing much else to keep the affair from happening except Peter's conscience and self-control, which he unfortunately lacked.
Director Yam Laranas took his time to bring us along on those secret photo sessions after their nominal computer "tutorials". These repetitive scenes between Mia and Peter, which were supposed to convince us they were falling in love (or lust) with each other, were very lazily composed and executed, with no artistic efforts at all. Everyone was just phoning in their acting as well. Rhen Escano may be a beautiful actress with an expressive face and effortlessly sexy aura, but she cannot carry this thing on her own.
One of the problems here is miscasting of leading man Jao Mapa, who seemed to have lost whatever charm he had in the past. His portrayal of Peter, with his unkempt hair, hefty dad bod and smirk on his face, came across as creepy and predatorial. Mia cannot convince us that she had fallen in love with this guy at first sight, even if she said so in her voice-over narration. Mapa had no chemistry with Escano nor Garci. None of his sex scenes (and he was in all of them) worked for their intended purpose, all were flat and lifeless.
Vivamax had been churning one "quickie" film after the other practically weekly this year, and it had proved that they can be good, despite a limited budget and short production time. But this one seemed to have served no purpose at all for being made, even at its most basic prurient aim to titillate. It was a waste of Rhen Escano's beauty and acting talent which she had already proven before in previous films like "Adan" or "Untrue." She deserves a much better solo vehicle than this lackadaisical slog. 2/10.
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