Vivamax: Review of THE LAST FIVE YEARS: Live-in Lament

March 5, 2022

Joan was a very busy 30-year old social worker of an NGO called We Care Philippines currently working in the slums of Caloocan City. For her outreach project, she worked with the Dumagat tribes in Quezon province. One of her main plans was to write a book about indigenous couples. She had also applied for a two-year grant to work with indigenous tribes in Papua New Guinea. She had no boyfriend, and her co-workers kept on harping about it.

In one of their rare nights out drinking at at a bar, Joan met William, a 30-year old man with a winsome smile, managing a advertising company he had inherited from his father.  The two he hit if off and eventually she agreed to move in with him. However in love they were with each other, there was one thing that Joan felt was missing. William can't seem to move on from his breakup with ex-girlfriend Portia (Shannon Robinson), and was not really keen on married.

This film is Meg Imperial's show. It was her character Joan who had the tough life decisions to make during the titular "last five years." She had been quite the achiever in her academic and professional life without feeling the need for a man beside her, despite the constant "concerned" reminders from her family and friends. But five years into a live-in arrangement with William and no marriage in sight -- is that enough for her?

Tom Rodriguez had a struggle with his problematic character of William and the way it had been written. He had the bedimpled handsome charmer and confident successful businessman parts down, as these were very much in his comfort zone. However, William's mental struggles about the concept of marriage were never really given the attention they warranted. What was really holding him back? What was he waiting for? 

The topic of marriage and the various ups and downs that married couples undergo were thoroughly discussed in various configurations -- Joan's sister Berna (Yayo Aguila) and her husband Jake (Nikko delos Santos), married co-workers Sheryl (Marife Necesito) and Chris (Martin Escudero), transwoman friend Bonita (Patricia Payumo) and her partner, and the teenage Dinagat couple Joan was helping. 

This talky drama ran a lengthy 2 hours and 20 minutes long, which could have been better streamlined by director Lemuel Lorca. The lessons of this film was summarized in a 3-minute-long "platitudes of wisdom' discourse by William's Lola Andeng (Gigi Locsin) -- about love turning into faith, about making decisions for yourself first but not excluding the one closest to you. Ideal advice all nice to hear, but not really easy to follow in reality. 5/10.