More "Moments Of Love"

With all the flames, curses, bad words, hatred, and even threats that I received from doing a Moments Of Love review, should I dare to speak about it more? Actually, no more. But what I realized, though, is how one-sided my review turned out to be. I have pointed all the flaws that I saw in it yet failed to see its strenghts. For that, I apologized. However, I do not (and never will) say that I'm an expert in reviewing films. I just feel that I know a thing or two about it because I have been a movie enthusiast since I was a kid. I have a wide array of DVD collections even. The point, though, is that what I wrote were my personal opinion and feelings towards the film. I may be a Kapuso (I need not prove that to anybody but the people who knows me know that) but that doesn't mean that I should like everything they do. It doesn't also necessarily follow that I should hate what the other side is offering.

I wouldn't talk about the said film's strenghts anymore because I wouldn't want to sound as if I am defending myself. Instead, I saw this review from the Inquirer which seems to be close to what I was talking about. Paul Daza was able to balance his review with the strong and weak points of the film. That I wasn't able to do for which, I again, apologized. Anyway, read the edited version below:

GMA FILMS’ NEW LOVE STORY, “MOMENTS OF LOVE,” is a brave effort to inject something new into the typical Pinoy romantic movie. The filmmakers stepped out of the mold. Director Mark Reyes works from a story by Annette Gozon-Abrogar and a screenplay by Gina Tagasa in which the lead characters, played by Dingdong Dantes and Iza Calzado, don’t even meet because they live in different time periods. She’s engaged to a heartless lout (Paolo Contis) in the year 1957; he’s a loveless yuppie in the year 2006. Aided by a thunderstorm and a magic telephone, Calzado and Dantes cross oceans of time to converse from the same provincial house.

The story evokes Hollywood flicks like “Somewhere In Time” and “Frequency.” “Moments” also recalls a wonderful local movie directed by Rowell Santiago starring Judy Ann Santos, Wowie de Guzman, and the late Nida Blanca called “Luv Text,” in which time travel was a pivotal story element.

Technically, “Moments” is a mixed bag. Many shots are beautifully lit and artfully composed, but marred by an annoying flicker that runs throughout the movie. Several close-ups of the leads are unforgivably out of focus. Audio quality is also wildly inconsistent. The actors’ voices are easy to hear in some scenes but inaudible in others. And once again, there is a tendency to play the theme song too loudly during “eureka” moments.

The decades-spanning dialogue sounds right for the most part, but the screenplay is lazy in its approach to Iza Calzado’s wealthy fiancé, played by Paolo Contis. He’s written as a two-dimensional creep with no redeeming traits, cut from the same cloth as Kate Winslet’s wealthy fiancé (played by Billy Zane) in “Titanic.”

And couldn’t the script be more inventive with the device used to prove to Iza that Dingdong is really from 2006? He happens upon a newspaper headline announcing President Ramon Magsaysay’s 49th death anniversary. He tells her that Magsaysay’s plane will go down the following day in her time. (Would any local broadsheet bother to carry that as a banner story)?

This contrived exchange aside, the best parts are those that show Dantes and Calzado on the phone and repeatedly trying to meet under a tree beside a tranquil lake. Dantes has never been more handsome in a movie; Calzado, never more radiantly beautiful. Their performances are so convincing that not only do we accept the unusual premise; we hope that fate will find a way to make the characters meet.

Praise is due Reyes for making this tricky story work for the most part. He overcomes the rough spots with his tangible passion for the plot, manifested in the camera movements and the production design’s disarmingly nostalgic vibe.

What will probably trigger the most discussion among viewers is the ending, which is at once innovative and predictable. Suffice it to say that the always wonderful Gloria Romero is the innovation, while the ending’s predictability involves singer-actress Karylle, Dantes’ real-life girlfriend. It tickles the mind to speculate on how much richer the conclusion might have been if the filmmakers hadn’t given in to that peculiar Tagalog movie convention, the love team. The film’s creators could have been just a little braver in that aspect.

(For the full article, please go here.)

Anyway, if there people who still thinks badly of me, just post away! The comments may be in moderation now but never did I reject any posts. I just wanna read them first before other people do. S'ympre naman, kung mumurahin ako at lalait-laitin, gusto ko ako muna makabasa bago ang iba. But please, don't turn my blog into a Kapuso-Kapamilya war. I had enough of those from different forums.


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Moments of Love