'Baler' the movie

Any movie with Anne Curtis in it is bound to be luminous, so there! Now you know I’ll be positive with this sort of movie review, or plug, of what might well win the Best Film award of the 2008 Metro Manila Film Festival.

Except it won’t, by silly fiat from the MMDA head honcho, El Metro Gwapo himself (or so it goes in his mind), who has characteristically announced that the Best Film plum will go to the top grosser. Eh? Yes, a case of flabbergasting, redundant non sequitur where the movie that makes the most in the tills is further rewarded by being declared as Best Picture. No, not Best Grossing Picture, but Best Picture, as if popularity translated directly to excellence.

Oh well, it doesn’t surprise us anymore. The inclusion alone of the usual horror thrillers and insensate comedies in this annual fest tells us time and again that Metro Manila isn’t Venice or Cannes when it comes to film appreciation or awards based on merit.     

It’s out-and-out commercial, critics and cinema aesthetes go hang. Why, they can always revert to digital indies at Robinsons Galleria or the classics screened at UP Film Center. But not during the 12 days or so of Christmas when Filipino movies take over all the theaters in the metropolis.

After all, the objective is to help the local industry. So, what better way than to showcase the usual range of stuff — from commercial draws to the few serious attempts at high-level filmmaking that may lend an iota of gravitas to the whole enterprise?

Actually, there’s an intriguing Joel Lamangan film, improbably titled Fuschia, that bucks the tide of youth-oriented screen entertainment by offering Gloria Romero, Eddie Garcia and Robert Arevalo in a senior citizens’ love triangle or situation. Intriguing because it’s certainly not run-of-the-mill.

The Gloria Romero character believes she has lost her husband, who stays in the US for so long that she remarries. First husband returns and insists on taking his place in the former abode. Former wife can’t help but take him back, as he has a health problem. Second husband is aghast but has to learn to accept the odd ménage a trios. The result is an engaging setpiece that makes the most of its witty script and fine actors, and ultimately even delivers an inspirational message that goes beyond the meron-pang-asim syndrome.

The story premise bids fair to join those exceptional foreign films that eschew youthful blockbusters in favor of heartwarming narratives involving mature relationships, e.g. Bridges of Madison Country, The Odd Couple, Driving Miss Daisy...

It’s films like these that need support. But it’s not going to top the tills, and neither will its potential rival for excellence: Baler, the obligatory or token “epic” historical film that also helps raise the MMFF standards a tad bit. 

What’s curious about Baler is that it’s a product of commendable cooperation and funding support among several well-placed entities that agreed to come up with an intelligent, inspiring film based on a remarkable historic episode — one that demonstrated courage and gallantry in the face of bitter conflict.

The story of the siege of Baler Church at the turn of the 19th century, where a band of Spanish soldiers bravely holds out for a year, not believing that the war is over, has been turned into cinema before. In Spain it’s a well-loved narrative, so that our former colonizers often pay tribute to the “ultimos Filipinos” for their heroism, while remaining appreciative of the Filipino revolucionarios’ sense of honor and magnanimity when the besieged force finally raises the white flag.  

It was Sen. Edgardo J. Angara, the most distinguished son of Baler next only to Manuel L. Quezon, who laid the groundwork for this cinematic retelling. Upon his initiative, Viva Films and Bida Foundation partnered as the film producers, with substantial support from two government agencies: Pagcor and the NCCA (National Commission for Culture & the Arts).

Upon much-lauded film director Mark Meily fell the responsibility of executing the epic. Happily, too, as he acknowledged during the private premiere, confessing onstage that a visit to Baler had sparked a fervent wish to someday tell the story of the historic siege on film.

And how did he do? Well, after that screening we congratulated him for the relative triumph, while nitpicking on certain minor areas, especially since, as we told him, his previous work had marked him out as having set the bar higher as film director. Mark remained gracious and humble upon hearing our remarks.

In the first place, crucial but perfectly understandable was the decision to frame the narrative as a love story, between youthful characters that could then be played by two of local filmdom’s brightest stars — appealing as superb eye candy almost as much for their worthiness as thespians.

Anne Curtis and Jericho Rosales are great to look at, and to regard with admiration as fine actors. Their romance, between a country lass and a mestizo who serves in the Spanish force, serves as melodramatic focus — a la Romeo and Juliet — around which revolves the sweep of a story of bittersweet conflict.

The script by Roy Iglesias is better than serviceable, albeit the narrative turns seemingly too episodic in parts — whether due to script structure or directorial scene-setting — so that we feel a little shortchanged in terms of seamless flow. Certain consecutive scenes, in particular those that transpire in the increasingly desperate confines of the besieged church, seem almost of the exact same duration and level of intensity, so that the narrative rhythm suffers.

It’s understandable that gloomy hues prevail in all of the interior shots, but should it always be magic hour whenever it shifts to the world outside, unless the message is that the revolucionarios’ vantage position was in heroic fields of gold? 

A brief scene where the altar boy renders basic information to his sister the heroine and another girl concerned over her own lover inside the fortress-church takes place on a scenic riverbank. They’re alternately seen at a distance, from across the river, with tufts of grass foregrounding the tracking shot! One half-expects a river creature to impose itself upon the brief idyll.  

The film is also over-scored. It’s fine music, overall, with thematic leitmotifs corresponding to romance and struggle. But the inherent poignancy in a few scenes could well have been left to function on its own, without the heart tugs that overbearing music imposes on empathy.   

One final cavil is the absence of an essential historical factoid before grand closure: that Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo ordered courteous treatment of and safe passage for the ultimos Filipinos as a gentlemanly curtsey acknowledging their gallantry. We don’t get a final sweeping view of their honorable departure from Baler.

Otherwise the cinematography is precious when it offers a paean to place, with panoramic vistas of lovely coastline, rugged mountains and serene seascape. These are all adjunct to the love story. But only once, when the villagers trudge up a trail to escape imminent conflict, is there a large view of the anguished proceedings.      

Understand, however, that this is all nitpicking, as we enjoyed the film and appreciated the heroic effort to present a classic love story with the backdrop of war — surely always an intensifier of the array of human emotions. Or maybe it’s because we haven’t reviewed any film in a long time, so that we’re out to prove, at least to ourselves, that we can still spot the glitches in film language, much like an old-fogey grammarian.  

Pardon the overcritical view, then; it is conducted in the spirit of acknowledgment, that there are honorable men and women in the movie industry who continue to struggle against the odds — of mainstream commercialization and officious pandering to the same.

Baler is more than worth watching. Kudos to the director and cast, and everyone involved in its production. The next week or so, our movie theaters will not be entirely bereft of promise and filmmaking gallantry.

Oh, and while we’re at it, we must also mention that the trailers alone for yet another entry, Jose Javier Reyes’ One Night Only, promise a wickedly funny movie as apparent homage to that staple of Pinoy urban-ity: the motel. We’ve also heard of how his other festival film, Magkaibigan, is the outstanding “serious” counterpart, relying on mature actors playing characters that are truer to life and its tragic concerns than all of the usual youth pap.