-- from the blog Adventures in Neverland
The Superstar of the
Philippine cinema, Ms. Aunor, has proven once more why she is the greatest
living actress in the country with her latest film. She played Mabuti (which
means good in English) Dela Cruz, a faith healer in far away place in Luzon,
whose simple, idyllic life in a scenic mountain in Nueva Vizcaya was suddenly
shattered when she was handed a bag full of money (five million pesos) by a
stranger that she met in a bus when she decided to go to the city, one of the
rare times that she went out of her impoverished barrio, to fix a problem about
their land, which was in danger of being foreclosed because of non-payment of a
loan.
The stranger, a woman, it
turned out, was part of a group that robbed a bank in the city. The woman was
killed by the military after she tried to escape. But before she jumped out of
the bus to evade the law enforcers, she managed to give the bag to Mabuti with
a request that the faith healer would please look for her daughter who was
living with relatives in a nearby town and to take care of her. Mabuti, of
course, had no idea what was inside the bag. She only discovered that there was
a lot of money inside when she opened it on the way to her home.
It was at this point that
her character was tested and the movie became more interesting. Will she return
the money? To whom? Will she keep it so that she can finally pay for her loan
and keep the land, send her grand daughters to school? Will she live up to her
name?
The film was more than
just a modern parable of what was good and bad, of what was right and wrong.
Mabuti's dilemma became even more meaningful, more poignant given what was
happening in our country at present, where legislators were accused of
pocketing billions of pesos of taxpayers' money to the detriment of the poor,
whose lives should have been better had the money been spent well.
Just like most of her
brilliant performances in the past, notably ‘Himala’, ‘Bona’, ‘Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos’, ‘Bulaklak sa City Jail’,
Ms. Aunor made use of her expressive eyes to convey a bagful of emotions that
her character was feeling and not feeling. But unlike in her previous
performances, where she sometimes had to resort to overacting (raising her
voice, crying hysterically), she was more subdued, more confident, more in
control here. With minimal dialogues (all in Ilocano, by the way, ala Meryl
Streep), Ms. Aunor conveyed joy, sadness, confusion, bewilderment, melancholy,
then finally, freedom, quietly, with very few words. Hers was a triumph of
underacting, if there is such a thing.
I was surprised why Ms.
Aunor did not win the best actress trophy at the festival's end when this was
her best performance to date, even better than her comeback film after a long
hiatus, ‘Thy Womb’ which won for her
accolades not just in the local film festivals and award giving bodies, but overseas
as well.
However, given her stature
in the local movie industry, the number of awards that she had won here and
abroad, I don't think another trophy still matters to Ms. Aunor and her fans,
who came out in full force to make sure that the movie would be a triumph not
only in terms of awards but at the box-office as well.
Aside from Ms. Aunor, the
movie also featured notable performances from a cast of mostly unknown actors
and actresses, especially the four young girls who played her granddaughters.
Mes De Guzman, who wrote
and directed the movie (and won in both categories), has proven that there is
indeed beauty in simplicity, poetry in everyday life, and a reward for every
good deed (or conversely, a punishment for a bad deed). The universe, after
all, is watching and listening.
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