February 16, 2024
Annie (Vern Kaye) is the wife of a successful lawyer Albert (Nico Locco). She had always been suspicious that Albert was having an affair with his secretary Kristy (Angelica Hart). When she learned that Kristy will be going with Albert on his business trip to Bali, Indonesia, Annie was alarmed and decided to also go to Bali herself. When she got there, she got attracted to fellow Filipino Elmer (Matt Francisco) whom she bumped into at the pool area.
Screenplay writer Juvy Galamiton and director Bobby Bonifacio Jr. decided to tell this ménage à quatre story in four subparts, where the same story was being told from the point of view of each member of the quartet -- the Wife, the Husband, the Stranger and the Mistress. But through all these parts, the story flow of all the parts were being related by one Narrator with a catty voice belonging to Ms. Mercedes Cabral -- their secret sauce.
The story of swapping partners is definitely not new in Vivamax in particular, nor even in local cinema in general. However, this one tried something with its stylized storytelling that went for high camp. This way the thoughts of each of these four main characters were also made known to the audience, making the proceedings more interesting. The naughty lilt in Cabral's voice as she told her sordid tale sounded like she was telling a bedtime story for adults.
The film started with a murder of one character, proceeded to tell the whole story of how the situation escalated to lead up to that crime. However, when the film went back to that murder scene at the end, it felt strange that the filmmakers decided to leave the audience hanging as to how the murder took place. I guess they think the identity of the murderer was not material to the plot. Why did they bookend it this way in the first place then? Odd.
The actors were playing their characters with tongue-in-cheek for the most part. Angelica Hart was the campiest of them all, so far her signature persona on Vivamax. Matt Francisco played it quite restrained in "Haliparot" (2023), so his cheesy Elmer in the Bali scenes was quite a switch. As for lead actress Vern Kyle, she actually did quite well in her Vivamax debut, with that scene in the hotel restroom corridor as proof of her promise in drama. 5/10.
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