Back to the Old School style of filmmaking

Film review: Love Me Again (Land Down Under)

Love Me Again, the latest from Star Cinema, which stars Piolo Pascual and Angel Locsin, is one fine example of Old School filmmaking. Directed by Rory Quintos from a screenplay by Arah Jell Badayos and Jewel Castro, it was shot in Bukidnon and the Australian Outback. It tackles themes of sacrifice in the name of love and family. Two cornerstones to the emotional makeup of most Filipinos, there’s nothing brazenly new about the treatment given these themes in the movie, but it’s the winning performances of both Piolo and Angel that drive up the appeal quotient of the movie.

Arah (Angel) plays a “cowgirl” who works on a pineapple plantation and plays “mother” and “ate” to her widower father (Ricky Davao) and her two brothers. The younger brother in a ranching family, Migo (Piolo) has some kind of history with Arah, but left Bukidnon for soul-searching and to find himself, now discovering that “home” is Bukidnon, and the life he was looking for was right there all the time. With obstinacy, he tries to win back Arah, dreaming of settling down with her, and running the downtrodden ranch which his family was thinking of unloading. This he manages to do over the first section of the film, infusing it with kilig moments that had the audience enraptured. As with any film worth its box-office revenues, conflict has to show its ugly head in the idyllic set-up. Arah’s father suffers a freak rodeo accident and now paralyzed from the waist down, and needing a heart bypass as well, the reality of money and how to find it immediately becomes a major concern for Arah. She decides to accept a job on an Australian ranch, to earn dollars for her dad’s operations and maintenance. Much to the chagrin of Migo, who thought all her plans should have him in them.

Life in the Outback, the bleak existence, the hardships and the emotional toll it takes on our plucky OCWs, are all part of the texture of the film. The love angle becomes threatened when the Australian landowner finds Arah’s services indispensable, and proposes a marriage of convenience, just when the fortunes of Migo had taken a nosedive, and to salvage his ranch, he accepts a job at the very same ranch where Arah had gone to. That’s the basic set-up and one can readily see that it’s the classic decision that we’ll be heading for — an empty marriage with someone she doesn’t love but with financial security on one hand, or the risk of reviving her relationship with Migo, ridden with uncertainty, on the other hand. No prize for guessing what Angel’s character decides.

But fortunately for us, that isn’t the point. The movie’s success is hinged on the fine portrayals of Piolo and Angel, and it is especially Angel who comes through with a depthful attack of her character. There’s that constant show of resolution and firmness etched on her face, but tempered by hints of vulnerability and inner hurt. It is a revelation how she carries the brunt of the movie’s emotional impact, helping us understand just why Piolo’s character is so smitten. This may be an Old School-type of film, but it works, a project both Angel and Piolo fans will relish.