Mara (Louise de los Reyes) and Cris (Diego Loyzaga) had a serious snag in their marriage when Cris had an affair with his college friend Lee (Cara Gonzales). An apologetic Cris tried his best to appease an inconsolable Mara to no avail. One day, he suddenly received bad news from their doctor (Lander Vera Perez) that he had cancer and had to receive treatment. Upon hearing the bad news, Lee suddenly showed up at their doorstep, offering to help.
Denise O'Hara got her start in showbiz as a writer for Judy Ann Santos and Piolo Pascual's soap opera TV series "Sa Piling Mo" (2006). She would later be head writer of more successful TV dramas like "Maria la del Barrio" (2011-12), "Mundo Man ay Magunaw" (2012) and "Please Be Careful with My Heart" (2012-14). She later transitioned into films, co-writing with Joseph Israel Laban for indie films like "Purgatoryo" (2016) and "Baconaua" (2017).
The first film which she wrote by herself was "Mameng" for the Cinemalaya film festival in 2018, which was also her debut as a feature film director. She won the Gawad Urian award for Best Director for this film, and her screenplay was also nominated. In 2019, she wrote and directed "Tayo Muna Kahit Hindi Pa Tayo" for the CinemaOne Originals film festival. This present project "The Wife" is the third film which she had both written and directed.
This story was told from a female character's point of view. The martyr wife is a common character in Filipino melodramas, either in film or on TV. What makes this Mara different from other martyr wives was that she was not quiet about her suffering at all. Living up to her name, Mara means "bitter" in Hebrew), she was very vocal about her anger to Cris with her daily emotional outbursts. She was never going to let him live it down -- until the Big C intervened.
When Mara was at her wits' end about her difficult situation, here comes Lee with her offer to help care for Cris. This was the main crux of the story -- how an unlikely cooperative partnership grew between two women who were supposed to be mortal enemies. The premise was good, but unfortunately, the execution was unsatisfactory. You knew where progression of the script was heading, but the way it took to get there was unconvincing.
Owing to the awkward exchange of dialogue during this key part of the film, the chemistry of de los Reyes and Gonzales never really gelled in a genuine friends. Maybe it was the relative inexperience of Gonzales as an actress, or maybe it was the way her character was written, but Lee's sincerity was suspect. An actress of more depth and experience was needed to be able to effectively transition this challenging character from foe to friend.
For those curious, yes, there were gratuitous sex scenes, with breast exposure for both actresses here, while Loyzaga kept his pants on. But these prurient scenes were only peripheral, not front and center like the typical Vivamax feature for the past year. Since this film was written and directed by women for a female audience, these sex scenes were rather surprising, especially since they were not even really necessary to be there at all. 4/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment