Fire & rapport in an unlikely love team

Film review: Love Me Tomorrow

MANILA, Philippines – Watching the first few scenes of Gino Santos’ Love Me Tomorrow is like reliving frames from the 1972 film, Butterflies Are Free, a play by Leonard Gershe and directed for screen by Milton Katselas.

While the relationship between Goldie Hawn and the blind boy played by Edward Albert in the latter film develops spontaneously, there is a manipulative attempt to make the character of Piolo Pascual (as DJ) as the great seducer and every woman’s fantasy in Love Me Tomorrow.

The unlikely third party is played by Coleen Garcia whose character is as vulnerable as any woman in love. Her part is largely underwritten but she makes the most of it.

The character of Dawn Zulueta as the married fashion designer and the mother of one (whose marriage is on the rocks) makes for an interesting character.

Zulueta exudes maternal instinct when dealing with his daughter but she is soon drawn to the man soon out of his youth but still brimming with passion and fire on all front.

Like it or not, the film makes an attempt to mirror the life and times of millennials and non-millennials.

Zulueta’s character is properly discreet although in moments of helplessness, she gently succumbs to the charm of the persevering DJ.

One must say that the first love scenes of Zulueta and Pascual are gently portrayed and with such good taste.

On the other hand, the character of Carmi Martin makes for a fine contrast with that of Zulueta. Martin’s character is daring, more than open and doesn’t mince words when it comes to getting the young man she desires. Martin knows her character inside and out and here she attracts, she sizzles and as always, throws caution to the wind. The result is that she makes for a perfect supporting actor complementing the role of the leading lady.

On the other hand, Zulueta lets her character bring her where she should and with that small signs of love brewing inside her, she eschews that kind of acting that is at once subtle, but effective.

The thing with Pascual is that he has the body and the looks that make for an interesting character. Probably without his knowing it, that physique carries the day for him but it only serves the cause of exhibitionism. He is able to project a certain kind of restlessness in his character but is unable to sustain it enough to make a dent as an actor. Indeed, the looks complement him but in the end, he doesn’t transcend it enough to make the part his own.

But as in all things probable that don’t quite work in real life, the story ends with the characters coming to terms with a new life and with it, new loves.

The theater explodes with excitement when recognizable new partners are revealed.

Santos did a fairly good directorial job enough to make us join this journey into the world of millennials and how non-millennials cope.

The use of the ’60s hit Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow puts Zulueta’s character on a time frame and it works as the character responds with a tinge of nostalgia and lost youth.

Love Me Tomorrow isn’t a masterpiece but it allows viewers to have a taste of second spring only to be confronted by the onset of falling leaves in between summer and the onset of winter.

The latest Star Cinema release is now showing in cinemas.