Walang Kapalit: Timely and relevant

The Vilma Santos-Christopher de Leon tandem, strictly speaking, cannot be called a love team because they do not have shrieking fans who expect them to end up with each other – unlike Judy Ann Santos-Wowie de Guzman fans a few years ago who had hoped the young screen stars would marry each other back then.

But even if Vilma and Christopher were never romantically linked to each other off-screen, they still maintain a huge following of moviegoers who tirelessly continue to lap up their films as a tandem.

In the case of Sharon Cuneta and Richard Gomez, although they were an item in the past, fans still support their films together even if these two are already happily married to other people. Yes, they seem to be fast duplicating the success of Vilma and Christopher when it comes to onscreen chemistry with their sixth film outing together, Viva’s Walang Kapalit, to be released soon in local theaters.

Rated B by the Cinema Evaluation Board, Walang Kapalit casts Sharon and Richard as a couple who marry in haste – only to separate, with Richard fleeing to the US and taking with him their daughter, Charina Scott. When he returns after eight years, he files for an annulment so that he can peacefully settle here in the Philippines and legally wed girlfriend Miriam Quiambao.

But since Sharon feels betrayed by Richard, she is bitter about his return and there is a lot of bickering between them. Eventually, however, circumstances lead Sharon to soften up and slowly they are once again drawn toward each other – complicating the situation further, of course, since Sharon has already been offered marriage by the new love of her life, Paolo Bediones.

Written by Raquel Villavicencio and directed by Joel Lamangan, the subject of annulment tackled in Walang Kapalit is very timely and relevant because, well, isn’t every other marriage being annulled in this country these days?

Obviously, a lot of painstaking research went into the story of this film because it presents some of the reasons why most of today’s marriages fail. Aside from this, the film also shows the tedious and painful process involved in an annulment case and that it is not really all that easy to obtain. I was just hoping, however, that the film also mentioned the cost of having your marriage annulled (around P60,000 in the mid-’90s).

Helping get the film’s message across are the fine performances of Sharon Cuneta and Richard Gomez who are perfect for the roles – particularly Sharon, who epitomizes today’s career woman. Physically, she seems to be the embodiment of the career woman of today (specifically the executive types) – sophisticated and confident (except maybe about her weight and this is depicted in one small kitchen scene where she makes a tomato and lettuce sandwich for herself). Her being cast as the female lead in this film that depicts modern-day problems adds for so much realism.

On the part of Richard Gomez, he can do no wrong anymore at this point of his career – given the fact that he’s already one of the most outstanding actors in the country today. In Walang Kapalit, he delivers his every line just right in each and every scene – without calling attention to his performance. From beginning to end, his delivery and portrayal of his character is what you call in filmic language as "natural."

Giving Richard and Sharon ample support are popualr television hosts Miriam Quiambao and Paolo Bediones who are trying out the film medium for the first time.

Their being new in this arena sometimes shows in a few scenes, but generally, I’m giving them a passing grade as first time actors. Paolo Bediones, for one, is quite good in the scene where he verbally confronts Richard Gomez after a brief fistfight between them.

Charina Scott, the ’90s child star and now a teenager, initially annoys moviegoers by overdoing the spoiled brat bit, but eventually tempers the level of her performance as the film progresses.

Of course, the newcomers are easily overshadowed by the one true veteran in the film, Dante Rivero, who plays Sharon’s mentally-unstable father. It is just unfortunate that it isn’t made clear in the film if Dante is suffering from Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. But whatever it is, Dante Rivero – as always – is very good at it.

Technically, the film is well put together (although there seemed to have been a bit of a problem with the sound in the beginning of the movie). Even better constructed are the film’s material and its presentation on the screen. And in spite of the fact that some parts of the film are non-linear (the scenes with the psychiatrist, played by Jim Pebanco, every so often interrupt the flow of the film so that Sharon and Richard may present the problems that led to the collapse of their marriage), the story of Walang Kapalit is very coherent. Sure, the scenes that show Sharon and Richard bickering can sometimes be tiring, but I guess this is part of the film’s realistic attack on the subject of marriages crumbling.

And yes, moviegoers may be bothered by the presence of some product endorsements in the film (McDonald’s, PH feminine wash, etc.), but the presence of these consumer goods may be justified by the fact that Sharon is cast as an advertising bigwig in the story.

But for all of these little "distractions," I still won’t trade in Walang Kapalit for any of those usual run-of-the-mill films that have been showing in local theaters these past several months. It’s a well-crafted movie and no other local film has tackled this kind of societal issue as realistically as this one in a long time.