WHEN we watched "Now That I Have You" recently, we were initially thrown off by female lead Bea Alonzo's characterization. She was ditzy, impulsive and practically stalked a stranger (John Lloyd Cruz) she had a huge crush on.
Why was she so hyper and brash? No explanation was supplied for quite a long time, so we couldn't warm up to, let alone empathize with, Bea's performance.
For his part, John Lloyd was too dourly nerdy to be interesting. So, we became increasingly antsy for about two-thirds of the movie.
We understood that the film was a feel-good, kilig romantic-comedy-drama "for the fans," so we shouldn't expect it to be much more than that. But we did feel that we were still entitled to a logical, believable story and characters, so we weren't satisfied with what we saw.
Happily, the movie's last third made up in part for its initial weaknesses, distractions and/or excesses.
It was finally revealed that Bea's mother was an activist who had practically deserted her family. So, this could help explain her daughter's ditzy, erratic behavior, which could be a ploy to get people to pay attention to her.
As for John Lloyd, his character was such a cautious klutz because he was still reeling from a heartbreak, and was in no hurry to put himself at romantic risk again.
We liked the way that this part of the movie investigated the different aspects of love, and tried to shed light on the mysteries and vagaries of romance and compassion.
And director Laurenti Dyogi made good, innovative use of the movie's narrator, who would reappear at various times in different guises, to help push the complicated story to its intended denouement.
Ultimately, this was: to make its two "impossibly" incompatible protagonists love each other so much that they would want to get over their inhibiting fears and doubts in a big, transformative way.
We also appreciated the initiative that the production demonstrated by opting to set quite a number of its scenes on the MRT--a difficult shooting situation that some other filmmakers would eagerly avoid.
And we liked some lines of dialogue in Joey Reyes' script that went beyond the usual romantic platitudes, to shed greater light on the subject of love.
Unfortunately, the cast's performances were generally unremarkable or lacking in believability. The two leads' portrayals strained for effect, thus limiting the possibilities for genuine empathy.
Still, the production has enough plus factors to make up for its perceived flaws, so it ultimately ends up as a creditable viewing prospect.
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer, page A23 of the August 17 2004 issue
Article by: Viewfinder by Nestor Torre
Submitted by: Nikka
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