Two couples: Cinema One Originals '14, pt. 3

The first film-in-competition that I saw at the ongoing Cinema One Originals, Kanakan Balintagos' "Esprit de Corps", proved to be a very good start. Let's see if the intense streak will continue in the following films. 

• "The Babysitters" (In competition, 84 mins), directed by Paolo O'Hara, written by Paolo O'Hara and Mara Paulina Marasigan

Paolo O'Hara's full-length film debut is about a couple (played by Jayson Gainza and Katya Santos) who raise a kidnapped child as their own after the kidnappers attempt to kill him when his parents turn to the police for help. Now, in order to support the child, they resort to conning and scamming people. Yet, trouble starts brewing again when the kidnappers are able to trace them and start taking the child again (who's now a grown-up boy) so they can finally get the ransom from the parents. The screenplay by O'Hara and Mara Marasigan is to be admired for there's an attempt at tackling some complex morality issues and there are even times that the comedy borders on being sophisticated and black. Sadly, it isn't just compelling enough. The punch that they're intending doesn't quite achieve its full force. Firstly, the screenplay suffers from a lack of basic logic. Through the years that Gainza and Santos are raising the kid, haven't they attempted for once in finding some decent employment, since it seems that they're capable of doing so if only they would want to? Has there ever been a time that they ran into trouble with the law? Aren't they able to conceive a child of their own? Why on earth do the kidnappers still attempt to get the ransom from the kid's parents and then kill him after all these years? These are basic questions that the film should've been able to address for it to be grounded on a certain level of believable humanism. And then there's the lack of any real urgency. The illegal activities that the couple (and later on, the child) engage in aren't exactly portrayed as something "threatening" for their plight to become a truly engaging "life-and-death" situation. And there are uneven attempts at quirkiness. Like this "omnipresent" character who appears in whatever guise at certain crucial moments in the couple's life. Is he something like the mysterious stranger in Kieslowski's "The Decalogue"? An angel-in-disguise? A one-man Greek chorus? It's properly offbeat at the start, but the supposed enigma eventually wears down because of being too present. 

One might see some complexity and subversion running through "The Babysitters". But these aren't properly mined. Uneven direction and unclear writing sadly prevent the film from becoming truly exceptional. 

• "That Thing Called Tadhana" (In competition, 90 mins), written and directed by Antoinette Jadaone 

Antoinette Jadaone's fourth feature film is a charming little experiment. Not considering all the "other people" around them, "That Thing Called Tadhana" is essentially just a two-character tale of an almost-there romantic tryst between two strangers (Angelica Panganiban and JM de Guzman), one of whom (the girl) is nursing a severe broken heart, something which may have been inspired by Richard Linklater's "Before" trilogy. The film is dialogue-driven, relying entirely on the two main characters' exchanges of thoughts, sentiments, quips and remarks, with the girl's heartbreak serving mostly as the start-off point. Panganiban and De Guzman (who are paired onscreen for the first time) pull off such long scenes excellently enough, exhibiting palpable chemistry and confidence in their interactions. Panganiban's vulnerability and spunk and De Guzman's casualness and candor immensely contribute in making their interactions funny and touching, sharp and poignant, cute and serious, whether alternately or simultaneously. 

Jadaone's screenplay is wonderful. How it charts the "progression" of the two strangers' "relationship" from the airport in Rome all the way to the highlands of Sagada and then back to Manila is full of charm, grace and insights, without veering into a rushed and obligatory sweetness and mawkishness and without overplaying the concept of "destiny" (tadhana) that's supposed to hover around the couple. Just observe, for example, the couple's scene in a Sagada café - it's just fulfilling to watch. And this is ironic considering how the girl is a big fan of the Bea Alonzo-John Lloyd Cruz saccharine romance "One More Chance". What's even more ironic is how "That Thing Called Tadhana" turns out to be a crowd-pleaser without actually giving in to the audience's ready-made expectations from a standard rom-com. It's like it's almost there, but it just stops enough - which is a good thing. 

(Antoinette Jadaone's "That Thing Called Tadhana": Nope, they're not lovers.)