Sinners, saints and lovers

By Rito Asilo
Inquirer
Last updated 09:46pm (Mla time) 10/13/2006

Published on page E1 of the October 14, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
D: Mark Reyes

S: Robin Padilla, Regine Velasquez, Eddie Garcia

TRUST Mark Reyes to come up with a visually succulent, meticulously photographed feature, with toe-tapping musical numbers to boot. But, while the film is better than his recent five-hanky drama (the shallow and dragging “Eternity”), his latest production doesn’t really offer a new perspective to the boy-meets-girl formula:

Robin (who’s back in his crowd-pleasing, over-the-top acting shtick) plays Gabriel, who’s out to expose Luisa (Regine Velasquez), a mysterious grifter who intends to marry his aging, affluent benefactor, Señor Manuel (Eddie Garcia), a widower for 30 years, so she can live a life of comfort and opportunity -- and to escape a sketchy past.

But, as fate would have it, Gabriel and Luisa soon fall for each other -- a situation that drives Luisa into a moral and romantic denouement: She has to choose between the handsome but uncouth charmer who makes her high heels shake and the well-meaning haciendero who assures her of a comfortable future. What’s a girl to do?!

Reyes uses a lush hacienda and the picture-perfect countryside as backdrops to boost a thin story that relies heavily on the easy vibe between Robin and Regine (that’s more evident in the amusing bloopers and outtakes at the end of the movie).

Unfortunately, while the scenes are briskly edited, it’s the story that trudges along slowly before it makes its not-so-insightful, worn-out moral -- perhaps, because there’s really not much story to tell, in the first place.

Even if his character is only used as a narrative device to showcase the film’s romantic protagonists, Garcia ably transforms a familiar caricature into a sympathetic figure.

This time around, Regine looks less awkward and shows dramatic insight and depth, particularly in two memorable scenes: While she silently, painfully gazes at her ramshackle hut (a reminder of her painful past), and as she pleads, “Bakit hindi puwede?,” when Robin’s character refuses to runaway with her. (Cameo alert: A relaxed Kuh Ledesma as a -- hold your breath -- sosyal-looking market vendor!)

Despite a gratingly shrill Mike “Pekto” Nacua, who plays Robin’s sidekick (and some logic-defying scenes that show Regine in high heels after riding a horse), it’s pleasing to note that Reyes’ film doesn’t cop-out with a fairy-tale finale.

Instead, the story settles on a compromise -- for the fans, of course -- by adding a sweet, Joonee Gamboa-narrated epilogue that puts a fitting finale to the duo’s unfinished romantic duet.