Desperadas

Primed as a film that aims to celebrate the modern Filipina, "Desperadas" tries to go for a cross between "Sex and the City" and the highly antagonized "Desperate Housewives," but never achieving more than intersecting glamor shots that function more as fashion spreads than a true satire. The four young women who play the high class dolls are beautiful and buoyant and they have enough wattage to light up the production, even though their characters never resemble fully realized personalities.

But strangely, this Metro Manila Film Fest (MMFF) movie is emotionally inert and strident. In the hands of director Joel Lamangan, who's not really known as a filmmaker of emotional subtlety, it isn't even a movie so much as an extended soap opera filled with distracting score, sloppy editing, and excessively camera-conscious mise-en-scene.

Fashionista Isabella (Ruffa Gutierrez), sex-guru Patricia (Rufa Mae Quinto), lawyer Stephanie (Iza Calzado), and underwear designer Courtney (Marian Rivera) are half-sisters who live in the same posh compound. Born of the same mother but of different fathers, the film follows these four women as they go about with their respective problems.

Isabella is having commitment issues with a mutual friend Vito (Jay-R), and her financial stability is on the rocks. Patricia's dominating ways threaten her marriage and, as with nearly all Lamangan movies, her husband's (Wendell Ramos) masculinity is put into question. Stephanie and her husband (TJ Trinidad) can't bear a child and a potential extramarital affair looms between her and another lawyer (Ryan Eigenmann). And Courtney is confused by her recently born again fiancé (Will Devaughn) who won't share her earthly urges until they get married. Call it a Pinay PG-rated "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants."

Like the sort of fare directed to readers of a classy magazine, "Desperadas" is shallow, garish and formulaic, built on the template of conflicts from self-help articles. As such, it has been given a brash, vibrant look that does assault the eye. Still, the script's message is obviously on finding love and romance beyond all the glimmer and glamor, yet it easily trumps that with muddled morals where one character is fine with domestic partnership and another values the sanctity of matrimonial sex. Such ambivalence leads to a highly uneven experience.

The girls, particularly Quinto, can be hilarious in an intentionally exaggerated way, but towards the end it's just, well, too much. Calzado proves further her effectiveness as an actor despite the inferior material she's tasked with. Rivera does have her moments but her youthful look sticks like a sore thumb to her way more mature counterparts. Gutierrez has nothing much to do except be herself.

Surely, towards the end, everyone learns their lessons and conflicts will be resolved. But it takes way too long to get there. With such obvious resolutions, "Desperadas" probably could have used a shorter running time (although Lamangan isn't one to go for "deleted scenes"). That said, you may want to stick around before the end credits for some advocacy on breast cancer, which while in itself is well and good, feels so out of place of the whole film (it could have been a separate ad that precedes the film). But it only further affirms the film's leanings toward looking - and feeling - like a lifestyle magazine.

The fact that this cheap and pretentious film got a sequel was disturbing. Not only was this poorly written and directed, the actors were also underacting. Their performances felt like the ones they were starting out in the industry with. The story, although has potential, was mediocre and a cheap attempt to portray a modern Filipina persona. Too much sexual vibe was executed to the point of it being too modern and contrary to the traditional and conservative Filipino mindset. This would have been a good point if it was only produced with quality and emotional depth but it was really not. Watching this in the cinema would have been a huge letdown.

When you talk of comedic movies in our country, you think of slapstick comedy, bumbling cops, Vic Sotto, Andrew E., comic hero spoofs, and of course, Dolphy. This formula has worked for years and the masses can't seem to get enough of this. This in mind, when the Metro Manila Film Festival comes, you will undoubtedly, find one or any of the mentioned to be an entry.

Desperadas is a great departure from that set-up. The story of four half-sisters struggling with their relationships may not sound inviting as it somewhat resembles Desperate Housewives, but this worked really well under the direction of Joel Lamangan.

I watched this movie with my cousin (when it finally came out) and neither of us were surprised when we saw that the seats weren't packed. I guess a lot of people didn't think this was any good. But, I mean, the writer was Roy C. Iglesias. Do they not know who that person was?

Anyway, as the story went, it was about four rich half-sisters and their problems between themselves and their romantic relationships. All with great careers save one; Patricia, the eldest, was the writer, Stephanie was a lawyer, Isabella was um... I'm not sure if she had any career as she's most seen partying most of the time, and the youngest, Courtney, was a swimsuit designer. Each actress portrayed their roles almost effortlessly; a special mention to Ruffa Gutierrez on this part. Even though Marian Rivera was a newcomer, she held her own, giving an astounding performance as Courtney.

Each sister had their own love woes: Patricia's husband felt inferior to his wife, Stephanie's marriage had no 'spark' in it anymore, Isabella was a single mom who doesn't want to get married, and Courtney's soon-to-be hubby suddenly converted into a Born Again Christian, which didn't suit well with her lifestyle.

All the actors performed really well here. Jay-R was a good actor (to my surprise) and so was Will Devaughn (so I guess he won't just be a model now, won't he?).

Despite the great acting, it's the script that i enjoyed most in the film. This was witty. This was fresh. This had a maid who knew the lines of Emily Dickinson, Gone with the Wind, and Parokya ni Edgar! I'm glad they didn't turn her into an Inday clone (search Inday's blog so you could have an idea).

I gave this movie an 8 for its (sort of) originality, approach in humor, cast, great direction, and decent acting. Please watch this film!