‘Sakaling Hindi Makarating’ Review: Ode to escape

Cielo (Alessandra de Rossi), distraught and heartbroken, has just gotten out of an engagement.

She moves to an apartment where she inexplicably receives hand-painted postcards from a mysterious sender who refers to himself as M. Befriended by her neighbor (Pepe Herrera) who suggests that she try to discover who has been sending the postcards, Cielo immediately sets out on a journey to the various places the postcards could have been sent from. All this in the hopes of being cured of her heartaches.

Simple pleasures

The initial premise of Ice Idanan’s Sakaling Hindi Makarating is simple, perhaps as simple as the pleasures it unhurriedly offers.

There are no grand schemes here, no clever twists that will make the film bigger than when it started. The characters work on gut feel instead of logic, deciding their future by whim and wit. Cielo goes on an unplanned trip, urged on by the promise that the resolution to the mystery might heal her of the pain of her recent romantic mishap.

Idanan entrusts her entire film on the fragile fantasy of her impulsive protagonist, hoping that her audience will be as fascinated by the random travels as Cielo is.

The film is propelled by that elusive sense of wonder, of discovery, of the hope that after every sequence where Cielo discovers a place and some of its inhabitants, she gets an inch closer to a final destination. Idanan takes her time, allowing the film to settle on its own. In a way, the film resembles a laidback vacation, paced not really deliberately, but casually.  

Changing focus

Unperturbed by any sense of urgency or structure, Sakaling Hindi Makarating is often riddled with repetition and a perceptible feeling of aimlessness.  

Idanan acknowledges this and midway through the film, abruptly changes focus from Cielo, who can’t seem to stay in one place,  to another set of characters who can’t seem to leave Batanes. Without abandoning the overwhelmingly amiable personality she has consciously draped over most of her film, she cleverly shifts her spotlight on a curious teen (Therese Malvar) who uncovers a box with mysterious contents.

By letting go of Cielo’s roaming quest, the film expands its drama to involve not just the self-absorbed longings of a heartsick artist, but also the coming-of-age of a girl who is stranded on an island. The film tackles a universal need to escape, to expand horizons from the aches and tolerated boredom that limit humanity. 

Feel-good fluff

While the film seems to be built on an unrealistic world where the characters’ personal dilemmas seem take precedence over social and economic problems, it at least never gives an impression that it is anything more than feel-good fluff. The film works as a diversion, somewhat shapeless but indubitably pretty. – Rappler.com

Francis Joseph Cruz litigates for a living and writes about cinema for fun. The first Filipino movie he saw in the theaters was Carlo J. Caparas’ Tirad Pass. Since then, he’s been on a mission to find better memories with Philippine cinema.