SUMMARY
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Edsa, the eldest in the brood who has given up on love after playing matriarch when their mother passed away, finally finds a perfect man (Lee O’Brien) to be with. Boni, who just got out of a relationship with a cheating boyfriend, cautions Edsa of falling in love too quickly, out of a mixture of envy and concern that he will be left to take care of their stepfather alone.
Paco, who was adopted by the Woolworths when he was still a baby, spends most of his time chasing after his real father, who does not really want anything to do with him.
The siblings’ conflicts open possibilities that are worth exploring, but it is predominantly a tearjerker whose methods are very predictable. There are no surprises here, and the film, in turn, is best experienced the same way one experiences a trite telenovela: with no expectations, and a heart forgiving of unabashed bathos.
A schmaltzy screenplay
The screenplay, written by Noel Nuguit, is largely at fault for the film’s inability to make it appear that all its pronouncements about familial love come from a sincere place. Pokwang, Chan, and the rest of the cast are forced to mouth the most mawkish of lines. This makes the film, which spends most of its entire running length in seemingly endless jabber, almost intolerable.
Thankfully, Pokwang is a proficient comedienne who is capable of holding her own during the film’s more dramatic moments. She is able to throw away the attention from how abhorrent a lot of her dialogue is by simply portraying her character with very little pageantry. After all, Pokwang’s charm comes from the fact that she seems to represent the common Filipina.
Chan also gives a dignified performance. Without having to overact and overemphasize the inner turmoil of his character, he manages to fluently express the flurry of emotions that dictate his character’s decisions.
Struggle to sit through
Nevertheless, Edsa Woolworth could not be salvaged by a couple of notable performances. The film is honestly quite a struggle to sit through, most specially if your tolerance for soap is small.
The pleasures it offers, consisting mostly of scenes where Pokwang’s charms shine or when Lazatin attempts to go beyond calculable filmmaking, are separated by minutes of bland mundaneness, drizzled with too much syrup for taste. – 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. Profile photo by Fatcat Studios
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