We shouldn’t give up on Judy Ann & Piolo

My biggest worry about watching Star Cinema’s Don’t Give Up On Us was that by the end of the film, its theme song was going to come out of my ears. Well, I don’t particularly like this song by David Soul of Starsky & Hutch fame because I find its melody too maudlin. Sure it became No. 1 in the Billboards chart. But that doesn’t take away the fact that it’s too mawkish – at least to my taste.

It was a good thing, however, that I didn’t give up that easily on this film by Joyce Bernal. This embarrassingly sentimental song is played repeatedly only in the beginning, and expectedly, at the end.

In between is an entertaining film that teaches us about life and love – as depicted by lead stars Judy Ann Santos and Piolo Pascual.

Written by Dindo Perez, Carol San Pedro and Artemio Abad (from a story by Enrico Santos), Don’t Give Up On Us casts Judy Ann as an overly ambitious advertising executive whose brother, Marco Alcaraz, is scheduled to be married in a matter of weeks to her best friend, Cheska Garcia. Cheska, however, backs out of the wedding and runs away to Baguio. The determined person our heroine is, Judy Ann follows her to the City of Pines, to Banaue and even to Sagada, accompanied by Piolo with whom she, but of course, eventually romantically gets involved with in this love story.

Aside from an engaging story that you as a viewer try to piece together, Don’t Give Up On Us presents to us an option on how we should live our lives. And so you see here two people of contrasting moods and temperament: 1) Judy Ann Santos, who is career driven and would stop at nothing to achieve her dreams. 2) Piolo Pascual, a folk singer who only wants a simple life – completely devoid of complexities. Whichever path you want to take is a choice this film leaves you with. It does not decide for you. The movie only reminds you of what you are doing with your life because you may want to do something about it since it’s never too late.

More than the romance and this wonderful (but never pushy) lecture on life, Don’t Give Up On Us offers other treats to moviegoers: An even-tempered direction by Joyce Bernal (she never goes overboard here – each scene is just right and without excesses), a screenplay that is creatively woven (with delicious dialogues to boot) and above-average technical elements that further help make this film very viewable to audiences of all ages.

Exceptional also are the performances of two of the best (still) young talents today – Urian winners both (the other a grand-slam prince) Judy Ann Santos and Piolo Pascual.

At the start of the movie you may find Judy Ann Santos too high strung (that’s how the role is written), but in time you will appreciate her performance as you see the contrast in the character she is playing in the film. And you just marvel at the way she is able to control her tear ducts. Oh how she cries – but without being too mushy. It is her acting discipline (and of course, guidance from Joyce Bernal) that helps make this film succeed as a light romantic drama. (It would have been disastrous if she had been excessive in her dramatic scenes.)

In the case of Piolo Pascual – Mr. Nuances himself – he can now even give actors twice his age a lecture on the subtleties of acting… on how to create those nuances that had already perfected in his performances.

Another bonus in the film is the presence of veteran performers Tommy Abuel and Hilda Koronel (who play Judy Ann’s parents) and Rio Locsin (as Piolo’s mom) who – as always – deliver very good performances in the movie.

Graded B by the Cinema Evaluation Board, Don’t Give Up On Us opens in cinemas tomorrow. It is a movie I recommend if you want to be entertained. Okay, it is not a perfect film because it has some clichés and admittedly has touches of Hollywood in it (to make it more attractive to local audiences who still gush over anything from overseas).

But it is a well-made movie that is pure entertainment and intelligent enough not to insult the sensibilities of moviegoers.

No, don’t give up on local movies yet. There is still hope – as shown by those well-crafted entries in the Metro Manila Film Festival (which ends today) and, yes, definitely with this new movie, Don’t Give Up On Us, which is a good opening film for 2006. May we have more of that (if not better than that) this year.