Give Me a Break on Another ‘Mistress’ Movie

I know it’s the trend now. I don’t have anything against flicks depicting the other side of the ‘other woman’. I understood their struggles even if I was hurt in the past because of ‘another woman’.

My dad broke off with my mom because of another woman; my mom’s good friend, I must say. Now that’s a ‘Maalala Mo Kaya’ material.

I am mature enough to understand the lives of mistresses. I don’t condemn nor condone any mistress, but as much as possible I would try my best to understand where they’re all coming from. This is why I am writing about this.

In 2011, Anne Curtis wowed her audience both male and female species, or maybe even the third genders, for her powerful portrayal of a mistress in ‘No Other Woman’. Including me, I was also one of those who said–she did well in that flick where she pitted acting skills with Cristine Reyes. And another movie followed, which catapulted Anne and another young actress Andi Eigenmann as one of today’s sexiest dramatic stars [perhaps] through ‘A Secret Affair’. In the two films, Derek Ramsay was the leading man.

Both tackled the issue of ‘being a mistress’. Now, there’s another one titled ‘The Bride and the Lover’. What’s funny is that, Carmi Martin is in these films–she was with Curtis in ‘No Other Woman’ and now with Lovi Poe, Paulo Avelino, and Jennylyn Mercado. I must say, Martin was the only one who exuded class and sophistication.

When will we ever get a new kind of theme? They just changed the title, but the flow of the movie is still the same. Give me a break on this another ‘Mistress’ movie. Can screenwriters do any better? I must say the one film I enjoyed most was 1994 film titled ‘Intersection’, and directed by Mark Rydell and starred Richard Gere, Sharon Stone, and Lolita Davidovich. It was a remake of the French film ‘Les choses de la vie’ (1970) by Claude Sautet. Set in Vancouver, British Columbia and centered around an architect played by Gere, who had his classic Mercedes 280SL roadster hurtled into a collision at an intersection. Then he flashes through key moments in his life, including his marriage to a beautiful heiress (Stone) and his affair with a another woman (Davidovich).

These are the types of interplay of characters I am looking for.

Basing on the locally-made flicks, they celebrate mistress’s journey as the ‘victim’ and somehow it placed them on pedestals. Oh yes, there were redeeming factors, but not as compared to the one with ‘Intersection’.

A local film directed by Maryo J. Delos Reyes, that was also produced by Star Cinema back in August 2007 titled ‘A Love Story’ was no. 1 in 3 weeks beating the Hollywood movie ‘Bourne Ultimatum’ starring Matt Damon. It was also listed as one of the top 20 List of highest-grossing films in the Philippines back then, with a story on a successful but emotionally scarred businessman Ian Montes (Aga Muhlach), who is torn between two women–a physician named Joanna (Maricel Soriano), and a flight attendant Karyn (Angelica Panganiban) a flight attendant. It had a fresher [at least for me, in Philippine setting] take. It didn’t directly celebrate ‘being a mistress’ but it highlighted the agonizing struggles of being one; and made its audience identify with her.

I don’t wonder why it earned awards and recognitions like:

• At the 38th Box-Office Entertainment Awards (Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Scholarship Foundation), it hailed Muhlach as Film Actor of the Year and Soriano as Film Actress of the Year, respectively.
• At the 24th PMPC Star Awards for Movies, Vanessa Valdez won for her piece as a Movie Original Screenplay of the Year.
• And at the Film Academy of the Philippines Luna Awards, it went home with the Best Picture, Best Director for Marjo J. Delos Reyes, Best Supporting Actress for Angelica Panganiban, and Best Supporting Actor for Dante Rivero.

In, ‘The Bride and the Lover’, I was laughing out loud [not because I found it funny] when I heard Poe saying something, she’ll strangle someone with her ‘Hermes scarf’. It was too ‘forcing-through’. It was both revolting and insuting to my ‘sense and sensibility’. It didn’t sound classy, but cheap. She was just a bit glamorous compared to the boxer’s mom. The lines like ‘Kung feeling nyo nasa putik kayong dalawa, bakit di kayo magbanlaw?’ It sounded all the more frustrating.

The scenes and the lines were indirectly a ripped-off from the two previous local flicks that featured Curtis. The insertion of ‘Google’ didn’t make the film relevant, but rather tacky. I don’t know why it sounded that way. Maybe because of the way how Mercado delivered it? And the word ‘Boricat’, it reminded me of our dog, a poodle with the same name.

It is my hope that the filmmakers would consider a material prior to filming it. I know the bankability of the stars is one of the factors to be considered, but no-recycling of a material that has a worn-out theme. Filipinos deserve better movies.