This movie is far from perfect or flawless.
But it is a whiff of fresh air that veers away from formulaic, tried and tested romantic flicks from big studios. While Empoy and Alessandra are physically mismatched (as opposed to commercial cutesy loveteams), the two offer perfectly nuanced characters, the former being awkwardly funny and contrived in some scenes, yet effectively coy in others. His best so far given his starring role. The latter makes the sob-worthy narrative poignant and memorable. While situations could be surmised as creatively concocted, the emotions are real and relatable.
Except for one: I had the feeling Empoy was going to die but I did not expect that he was going to be swept away by a reckless moving vehicle. Because that can be a little bit of a cliche. I must have seen that kind of scene from another movie.
It feels like indie but it is actually a feature film. Sans the gloss, you wonder how it feels like to be temporarily blind; then have your eyesight back “to see and feel the difference”. The sequence where Lea (Alessandra) blindfolds herself and revisits the places both used to go to punctuates the narrative in one calming visual experience. It is powerfully quiet and divine. It is like, “I STILL SEE YOU EVEN IF YOU ARE GONE.”
Humor here is only incidental; it is actually a serious film without trying to be melodramatic or otherwise. Or artsy. (MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Ariel C. Sebellino of Davao City is executive director and trustee of the Philippine Press Institute. He does film reviews once in a while)