MMFF2023: Review of FAMILY OF TWO: A Mother's Mission

January 7, 2024

Maricar de Dios (Sharon Cuneta) has been a widow for 23 years. When her husband died, she had to stop college in order to work and earn money to raise their son. Mateo or "Matty" (Alden Richards) was now working for an advertising firm. Aside from the plants in her garden, Maricar did not have any activities on her own. She had built her whole life around taking care of her son, cooking his meals, preparing his packed lunches daily. 

At work, Matty had a serious crush on the workaholic Czarina or "Zari" (Miles Ocampo), but he could not get the right timing to tell her. One day, their boss Mr. Ong (Chris Tan) assigned the two of them to prepare and pitch a marketing plan for an important client. Zari and Matty had more time together, and got to know each other better. When the opportunity of working abroad came to Matty, he worried about who will take care of his mother.

Sharon Cuneta's mettle as a dramatic actress is well-known. However, since 2010, she has not been doing as many movies as she used to. Since 2017, she's only had five films before this one, playing mother to a teenager. This time, Cuneta has agreed to play mother to a 28-year old character. She played Maricar with an effusive kind of love that we can feel emanating from the screen, so we also feel her warmth. She may come off as cloying on TV shows, but here, she felt as sincere as it gets.

I've only seen two previous films with Alden Richards -- "Hello Love Goodbye" (2019) and "Five Breakups and a Romance" (2023). In both, he had proven to be a dashing leading man and a very sensitive actor. As Matty, Richards found the sweet spot of his "mama's boy" character, playing him to be lovable to every mother in the audience. You'd be a rock if you weren't moved by his tearful apology scene with Cuneta. He also ably represented us adult children, reminding us of our own mothers and how much they loved and cared for us. 

Miles Ocampo won Best Supporting Actress of the festival for playing the aggressive, no-nonsense Zari, although her romantic chemistry with Richards was rather iffy. Jackie Lou Blanco played Odette, Maricar's ditzy neighbor, mainly as comic relief, along with Pepe Herrera and Donna Cariaga as Matty's gossipy co-workers. Soliman Cruz, Raul Montesa, Bart Guingona, Floyd Tena and Tonton Gutierrez played the men whom Maricar went on dates with.

There had already been several films about the lengths mothers go for their children, from childhood up to adulthood. This is a mother's happiness to be of service to their children at whatever age and condition in their lives. What made this Nuel Naval film particularly heartwarming and tearjerking was the natural chemistry and real rapport between Cuneta and Richards as mother and son, which made audiences deeply feel whatever their characters felt. 7/10.