December 27, 2022
Francisco and Eleonor Florencio (Noel Trinidad and Liza Lorena) have been married for 55 years now. Their eldest child is Kiko (Nonie Buencamino), an engineer married to baker Odette (Agot Isidro). Second child is Fortune (Mylene Dizon), who owned a dog spa with her husband Nelson (James Blanco). Third child is Ellen (Nikki Valdez), a spinster who stayed at home to take care of her parents. Youngest child is "menopause baby" Enrico (JC Santos), separated from Glenda (Ina Feleo), now living in with Irene (Anna Luna).
One day, Francisco had a health scare but was soon discharged. Ellen left to take a vacation in the US to meet up with a man she met online. The other three siblings decided to take their parents into their respective homes to watch over them in Ellen's absence. However, during this time, despite all of the efforts taken by the children to make them comfortable, various things happened that made Francisco and Eleonor feel like that they were losing control of their independence, as well as becoming burdens for their kids.
This film was a breath of fresh air in this current year largely dominated by films with dark and adult themes. As the title clearly states, this film dealt with various matters that happen within any family, therefore it will connect with all its viewers and make them reflect about their own families and the problems they have within. This generally wholesome film is Rated G, which makes it one of the very rare films released lately which did not include ANY mention of common indie film topics such as LGBTQ issues, adultery or drug abuse.
The cast gathered for this film was an excellent ensemble who related emotionally to each other like real family. Noel Trinidad gave the performance of his career here as the cantankerous Francisco. Liza Lorena played his ever-supportive wife Eleonor, but with her own strength of character. Nonie Buencamino again proved his dramatic skills as the arrogant and stressed out Kiko, who had some of the heaviest scenes. Screen veterans Mylene Dizon, Nikki Valdez and JC Santos also had their own memorable scenes.
This was an old-fashioned family melodrama as expected, but done quite well, written with sensitivity to include problems experienced in all generations within a family from a senior father's point of view. The grandparents here may be infirm, ill-tempered or uncooperative, but were both still of sound mind here, ultimately proactive about what they wanted . It admittedly ran a tad long (2 hrs 14 min), with cliches here and there, and an ending viewed through rose-colored glasses, but entertaining viewing for the holidays nonetheless. 8/10.
PS: The reason why I watched this film first was because there was an online buzz that this film will sweep the awards night. However, in the awards last night, "Family Matters" did not figure prominently at all, and surprisingly not even a single cast member won for acting. This was an interesting development especially since the head of the MMFF Jurors this year was Laurice Guillen, whose own family drama "Tanging Yaman" won big in MMFF 2000. Did they feel that "Family Matters" was too similar to "Tanging Yaman" in terms of its story elements?
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