March 18, 2022
Janet Eunice Alitagtag (Christine Bermas) was a smart young woman who was forced to work as a GRO in a seedy bar in Angeles City. She was her family's sole breadwinner, supporting the dialysis sessions of her mother Flora (Tanya Gomez), the nursing education of her brother Dario (Jolo Estrada), and the criminology studies of her boyfriend Roy (Albie Casino).
While walking the streets after a slow night at the club, she was picked up by a handsome American Joseph Elliot (Kit Thompson) who swept her off her feet. However, while Elliot was assigned out of the country for a mission in Iraq, Eunice had to accept the advances of an Arab lover Habib (Ivan Carapiet) to cover her family's expenses.
The title "Moonlight Butterfly" was the nickname the smitten Elliot gave the alluring Eunice from the first moment he met her. This part of the story of a young woman supporting her family by selling her flesh was an old overused one. This one went all the way with the teary melodramatics this trope had carried with it all these years. The moment you saw Flora's sallow eyes and Roy's naughty face, you knew where their story was going.
However, writer Eric Ramos came up with an ambitious twist of making Elliot an American secret agent who was working with his Filipino asset at the NBI Nilo (Jim Pebanco) pursuing Arab terrorists. The script dropped names like Osama Bin Laden, places like Baghdad and Cairo (the pyramids make a special appearance), and plots like an assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II during World Youth Day 1995 in Manila.
Aside from beefing up the plot with Eunice's numerous sex scenes (this is Vivamax after all), there were also side plots concerning two of Eunice's friends -- the caregiver best friend Grace (Quinn Carillo) and the fellow bargirl Mika (Hershie de Leon). Even Dario's best friend Kevin (Gelo Alagban) got his own totally off-tangent moment, which included an unintentionally hilarious hospital scene.
Christine Bermas, who who made a good impression with her first film "Siklo" (2022), did relatively well here as well even if her drama moments were too predictable with contrived dialog. It was admirable how Thompson and Pebanco stayed serious with all the cringy lines they were given to say. Carapiet must have screamed "you f**king b**ch" a record number of times. Travelling between Angeles and Dipolog was apparently such a breeze you can just have marketplace quarrel there anytime. Those comments aside, that abrupt final blackout was a very good ending. 4/10.
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