A Very Good Girl

A Very Good Girl has some good messages to share. The movie doesn't know what it wants to be though. It's like, confused or something.

The acting is top-notch. Dolly de Leon is just perfect, which isn't really surprising. I hope to see more of her. Honestly I was doubting Kathryn Bernardo at first but it's very interesting to see a new side of her, and she played it very well.

The story is a hit and miss for me. It has some good moments, particularly Dolly and Kathryn's scenes. The climax was really great with a really shocking twist until the ending, which I didn't like very much. I dunno. I still recommend this film.

No pun intended - and also no Shaft in this one. Though someone who seeks revenge and retribution for something that happened in the past. The evil character is almost a caricature - though her actions feel even worse at times (like staying alone in a room with someone who clearly hates you) ... and then there is the convenient ending ... but let's leave that aside (full circle it is supposed to be - but not as clever as it thinks it is ... is what Yoda would say).

All that said, if you like crime thrillers you might be satisfied .. maybe you even get surprised by a few things (whether that is positive or negative ... will be up to you) ... so just suspend your disbelief and dive into it ... don't mind the overacting either of course.

I don't regularly watch chich flicks or even Tagalog films, so for me this was a fun change of pace. Which also means this movie is pretty good and well done. The editing is very modern for today's generation which has short attention spans. The acting by the 2 lead women is fantastic and most of the women characters are well developed. I won't say the film is anti-male, but they purposely made the few male characters into bad generic roles. Despite the long running time, the movie is fast paced and has a deep story that is both fun to watch and keeps you interested in the back story. You really get to know all the characters hearts and by the end you really want Philo to committ the ultimate sin before the the ultimate karma comes for Mother. This is a good movie, not your typical Filipino romance drama you see all the time.

This movie was painful to watch. It attempted to be a dark revenge movie but missed the mark by a mile. It tried to shock the audience through gratuitous cursing and sexual scandals that came off cringy. The story line was very predictable and main character was hard to root for. The flash backs were abrupt and the more the past was revealed, the more the present action did not make sense. As the main character got close to her goal, she then turns around and does something that doesn't make sense. Bad story telling, bad resolution, bad movie. I watched hoping for quality but instead got trash. It was as mediocre as the actress's cosmetic surgeries.

I know that the writers wanted to tell a good story on this one, although a revenge plot is nothing new depends on how it was executed and how the story unfolds, however A Very Good Girl failed to achieve that storytelling for Mercy, co'z I felt nothing as it reaches the end of the film.

The story felt rushed, maybe the script writing was constrained on how to squeeze a series-long revenge story in a 2-hour movie. Mercy's character development is one thing, then the revenge scheme is another. I really felt the disconnect between Mercy and Philo, sayang.

I really believe this film had potential, if only it was given more time on the script writing and maybe peer reviews from other writers? Next time hopefully...