February 16, 2008
STARBYTES
By BUTCH FRANCISCO
STARBYTES
By BUTCH FRANCISCO
Something to spice up the season of hearts
There really is nothing new or exciting anymore about the story of a girl pretending to be the girlfriend of a man she hardly cares for. But you have to give it to the director (Mark Reyes) and writer (Suzette Doctolero) of My Best Friend’s Girlfriend for creating something new, interesting and entertaining out of an otherwise old and hackneyed plot.
In the My Best Friend’s Girlfriend, Marian Rivera is a working student who supports her mother (Deborah Sun) and autistic brother (Renz Valerio) by waiting on tables in a rather sleazy bar with go-go dancers. But that is the only thing she does there and nothing else because she is basically conservative and well-brought up by her parents.
When the household coffers dry out one time, unfortunately, she is forced to accept an offer to be the girl dancing out of a cake in a stag party. This is where her path crosses for the first time with Richard Gutierrez, an upper middle-class kid, who has been bumming around since he finished college. Drunk, Richard gets fresh with her and they get into a fight.
That would have been the end of the story, except that by strange coincidence, Marian’s US-based boyfriend, JC de Vera, turns out to be Richard’s best friend. To Marian’s relief, Richard keeps mum about the stag party incident. But there is one condition to this, Marian must pretend to be Richard’s girlfriend to make his ex, Ehra Madrigal, jealous and come back sailing to him. Marian agrees to this (or else) and this is when they discover each other’s good traits and eventually fall in love like in all romance movies.
It is easy to appreciate and enjoy My Best Friend’s Girlfriend. To begin with, the characters are very sympathetic- never mind if Richard was practically good-for-nothing and irresponsible in the beginning of the story (he reforms eventually). You will understand his behavior- given the fact that he comes from a broken family and his mother, Pilar Pilapil, has become a dipsomaniac.
Richard and Pilar have a beautiful scene together where they pour their hearts. It is a touching and tender moment- a wonderful mother and son bonding, but with alcoholic beverage.
Of course, the best moments are reserved for Richard and Marian, who look good together you’d totally forget about Dingdong Dantes’ Sergio Santibanez character in Marimar. Richard and Marian have great onscreen chemistry (yes, a new love team in the movies is born) – even better than the Richard Gutierrez-Angel Locsin tandem that saw many a Valentine’s offering in the past.
In My Best Friend’s Girlfriend, it helps that Mark Reyes didn’t just rely on the good screen combination that is Richard and Marian. Director Reyes actually gave them well-staged scenes that you find all over the movie. Watching the film, you know that those sequences were carefully thought of and not just carelessly thrown in for the fans’ delectation. Nowhere in the picture do you find Richard and Marian playing it cute for cuteness’ sake. They really have solid material to chew on and in due fairness to them, they don’t waste any of that. Richard and Marian give their all, but without going overboard.
The two actually give commendable performances. Richard, to begin with, already had it in him and this I noticed in Let the Love Begin a couple of years back. Even then, I knew that he had the makings of a good actor (but he needs more serious projects in the future for him to develop his craft further). Here in My Best Friend’s Girlfriend, he and Marian help each other out and we appreciate the results: Very decent acting moments from the two of them.
If there’s one problem I find in this movie, it’s the staging of the supposed concert scenes. The grand Swan Lake ballet performance, for instance, turns out to be a dance recital for kids and a violin concert looks more like a wake set in one of the mortuary chapels of Funeraria Nacional.
But other than that, the film is truly engrossing- thanks to a good material that still entertains despite its being tried-and-tested, some inspired moments from the director, a very tight ending and good performances courtesy of Richard and Marian.
My Best Friend’s Girlfriend may not be hailed as the best film of the year, but as date movie this Valentine season, it is the best.
There really is nothing new or exciting anymore about the story of a girl pretending to be the girlfriend of a man she hardly cares for. But you have to give it to the director (Mark Reyes) and writer (Suzette Doctolero) of My Best Friend’s Girlfriend for creating something new, interesting and entertaining out of an otherwise old and hackneyed plot.
In the My Best Friend’s Girlfriend, Marian Rivera is a working student who supports her mother (Deborah Sun) and autistic brother (Renz Valerio) by waiting on tables in a rather sleazy bar with go-go dancers. But that is the only thing she does there and nothing else because she is basically conservative and well-brought up by her parents.
When the household coffers dry out one time, unfortunately, she is forced to accept an offer to be the girl dancing out of a cake in a stag party. This is where her path crosses for the first time with Richard Gutierrez, an upper middle-class kid, who has been bumming around since he finished college. Drunk, Richard gets fresh with her and they get into a fight.
That would have been the end of the story, except that by strange coincidence, Marian’s US-based boyfriend, JC de Vera, turns out to be Richard’s best friend. To Marian’s relief, Richard keeps mum about the stag party incident. But there is one condition to this, Marian must pretend to be Richard’s girlfriend to make his ex, Ehra Madrigal, jealous and come back sailing to him. Marian agrees to this (or else) and this is when they discover each other’s good traits and eventually fall in love like in all romance movies.
It is easy to appreciate and enjoy My Best Friend’s Girlfriend. To begin with, the characters are very sympathetic- never mind if Richard was practically good-for-nothing and irresponsible in the beginning of the story (he reforms eventually). You will understand his behavior- given the fact that he comes from a broken family and his mother, Pilar Pilapil, has become a dipsomaniac.
Richard and Pilar have a beautiful scene together where they pour their hearts. It is a touching and tender moment- a wonderful mother and son bonding, but with alcoholic beverage.
Of course, the best moments are reserved for Richard and Marian, who look good together you’d totally forget about Dingdong Dantes’ Sergio Santibanez character in Marimar. Richard and Marian have great onscreen chemistry (yes, a new love team in the movies is born) – even better than the Richard Gutierrez-Angel Locsin tandem that saw many a Valentine’s offering in the past.
In My Best Friend’s Girlfriend, it helps that Mark Reyes didn’t just rely on the good screen combination that is Richard and Marian. Director Reyes actually gave them well-staged scenes that you find all over the movie. Watching the film, you know that those sequences were carefully thought of and not just carelessly thrown in for the fans’ delectation. Nowhere in the picture do you find Richard and Marian playing it cute for cuteness’ sake. They really have solid material to chew on and in due fairness to them, they don’t waste any of that. Richard and Marian give their all, but without going overboard.
The two actually give commendable performances. Richard, to begin with, already had it in him and this I noticed in Let the Love Begin a couple of years back. Even then, I knew that he had the makings of a good actor (but he needs more serious projects in the future for him to develop his craft further). Here in My Best Friend’s Girlfriend, he and Marian help each other out and we appreciate the results: Very decent acting moments from the two of them.
If there’s one problem I find in this movie, it’s the staging of the supposed concert scenes. The grand Swan Lake ballet performance, for instance, turns out to be a dance recital for kids and a violin concert looks more like a wake set in one of the mortuary chapels of Funeraria Nacional.
But other than that, the film is truly engrossing- thanks to a good material that still entertains despite its being tried-and-tested, some inspired moments from the director, a very tight ending and good performances courtesy of Richard and Marian.
My Best Friend’s Girlfriend may not be hailed as the best film of the year, but as date movie this Valentine season, it is the best.
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