Mush Marathon 1: A Very Special Love

Love is in our living room air! This February, I told myself that I would catch up on all the romantic comedies (local & Hollywood) that I missed in the past year. The mush marathon began last Thursday night. My husband finally got a copy of… hold your breath… “A Very Special Love” starring John Lloyd Cruz and Sarah Geronimo! Hahaha. To be honest, you would rarely find me lining up for a local movie. Bad noh? As someone who is basically part of the Pinoy showbiz industry, I should be supporting it, right? Well yeah… Unfortunately, even if I had wanted to watch this film when it came out last August, my husband and I were in a deep frenzy for the “Dark Knight” which came out a couple of weeks earlier than the Star Cinema film. So given that we have agreed on spending our weekend entertainment budget wisely, when made to choose between splurging on our much-awaited “Dark Night” and betting our curiosity on “A Very Special Love”, hands down the Bat won over Lloydy.

We didn’t watch DK on its first opening week because we wanted to avoid the huge crowd. So when we finally trooped to Gateway Cineplex a week or so after I was surprised to see a very long line going to one of its cinemas. We thought it was still for DK but a few more paces into the area and we got our answer. The poster for “A Very Special Love” loomed before us. I surveyed the crowd and mind you, most if not all didn’t look like your typical jologs crowd at all. Forgive my prejudice. It was a queue of relatively well-heeled people. I was surprised because all this time I always thought Sarah’s appeal was only for the masa telenovela audience. This was certainly interesting. In fairness, diba? My curiosity even grew more when I started to hear raving reviews about it.

I only get to catch John Lloyd’s acting whenever his movies play on Cinema One and on rare occasions when there’s nothing else to watch on TV so I have no choice but to endure those primetime telenovelas. No doubt this guy knows how to act. And I’ve been used to seeing him with Bea so the idea of pairing him up with Sarah was really offbeat. Although, I learned that this was not exactly their very first pair-up and that they’ve had sort of a road test on “Maalaala Mo Kaya,” and despite claims that they clicked on the small screen, I still believe that taking their love team to the big screen doesn’t spell any box office guarantees. It was certainly a risk that Star Cinema was willing to take. And of course we all know by now that they hit jackpot on this one.

I know it’s a bit too late for a movie review but let me share my 2 cents worth on this. Over all the movie was “cute” – it’s a story of a boss and his secretary falling in love. The concept’s not THAT new, but then again, nothing is ever new in Philippine Cinema, which is not entirely wrong IF and only IF the film manages to outdo the previous depictions. The most memorable stiff boss and kooky secretary love story I love referring to is Carmi Martin and Edu Manzano on “Working Girls” Hahaha sorry but I grew up watching and loving these ‘80s classics. For me nothing can beat that scene when Carmi’s character declared “Sabel! This must be love!” Carmi & Edu’s love story in Working Girls was but a fraction of the entire plot so there was really not much space to explore about their characters’ backgrounds. This was the opportunity that “A Very Special Love” offered for us.

The story opens in the point of view of Sarah whose character’s name is Laida. From the very beginning the film sets her up as a very ordinary girl (coming from a lower middle class family) who is head over heels in love with Miggy Montenegro (John Lloyd) who is obviously a member of the Alta de Sociedad. In the real world, he would have been a son of the Ayalas, Lopezes, Gokongweis, and all those rich families who practically own all of Metro Manila and most parts of the country. The story progresses with quirky Laida, a naïve fresh grad off to apply for a job (her first) in the magazine being run by her all-time crush and “fantasy” Miggy Montenegro. She joins the company “accidentally” in the most inopportune of time. Their magazine “Bachelor” is on fire with its mother company as it suffers being Number 2 next to their rival publication. Miggy the owner goes ballistic due to pressure; ends up losing his editor in chief (who happens to be his friend) and some good employees; leaving him with an under-manned staff to revamp the whole magazine in only 3 weeks.

The messiah comes in the form of Laida. Her naïve infatuation with the boss proved to be “useful” as she naturally becomes the eager-beaver worker, unfazed with the pressure, helping with all the aspects of the production, acting as the team’s cheerleader and sometimes being the mascot. She does all these things unflinchingly because there’s nothing else in her mind and heart but to please her boss slash love of her life Miggy. Soon, her cute “save the day” antics finally get Miggy’s attention. The day that she accidentally became his nurse when he came down with a bad flu sealed the deal for him. As the story progresses, we learn that Miggy is actually a love child; a spawn of his father’s relationship outside his marriage. His mother is dead and although he’s acknowledged by his siblings in the legit Montenegro brood, we are informed in the story that he feels left out; and that he needs to earn his siblings’ and father’s approval and ultimately their love by being successful in the family enterprise. Miggy’s struggle with his magazine being Number 2 parallels the stigma of his mom’s “number 2” title in his father’s life.

Laida softens the heart of this bachelor which is translated symbolically through the transformation of their men's magazine. From being just all about alpha male sex to growing a sensitive soul. Soon Miggy falls in love with Laida but of course there must be some sort of a conflict to make way for a grand ending, right? So after Miggy comes out of his Scrooge persona and becomes loved by his staff; and after feeling triumphant with the new face of the magazine, everything falls apart for him when the launch party was ruined by the onslaught of a typhoon. He goes back to feeling sorry for himself, and as expected pushing away Laida for he feels that there’s not enough love in his heart for him to give her back. Then of course, as expected, in the end after some family drama moments he patches up with his family; realizes that he loves Laida so off he goes to make a grand declaration of love – conspiring with his staff to set up a huge “I’m sorry” billboard in some park as he sings their theme song “Kailan”. It rains again by the way (the 3rd time in the movie) and so the love birds have this whole fighting and making up in the rain, typical romantic comedy I-love-you-you-love-me-let’s be-together kind of ending.

Okay, here’s where I will start to nitpick. To be honest, albeit some über-mushy moments here and there that just sent shivers down my spine, I think the movie was a very good romantic comedy UNTIL the ending came. When did you ever see a romantic comedy which didn’t have a single kissing scene at all?!? The story SHOULD have ended with at least a conservative close mouth kiss. Instead, they just HUGGED and awkwardly at that. It was so disappointing!!! Why oh why???


I really believed that in the original screenplay, that scene ended in a lip-lock. It just doesn’t make sense not to have one. No one in her right scriptwriter’s mind would write off a kiss out of a romantic comedy of all genres!!! It didn’t need to be a torrid kiss. Geez, he could have just given her a soft smack and the camera could have zoomed out to give the viewers the illusion that they’re now in a passionate lip-lock moment. Let me argue why the missing kiss was so unacceptable. First of all, Miggy is the owner and editor in chief of a Men’s Magazine that’s all about SEX. He had a sexy Brazilian girlfriend in the story. I know for sure that this guy’s first instinct is to kiss a girl that he likes. C’mon! I would have accepted the “conservative” ending if they didn’t write Miggy in that character. Laida’s character was definitely a virgin. For sure, she has never been kissed by any boy and by the way she was written as someone who almost had a stalker-like infatuation on Miggy, I’m sure that in her mind she would have wanted to be kissed by her ultimate crush. Otherwise, what’s the point of the sexual tension in the story? What’s the point of all those syrupy stares and those romantic gazes between the two of them? And I really believe that once you write a character like Laida, there should be some sort of transformation in the end – a coming of age. We were all rooting for her. I wanted Laida to grow up in the story. I wanted her to bloom into the woman that Miggy fell in love with. Again, if they were both depicted as high school sweethearts, the hug was alright but puh-leez, they’re adults working in a men’s magazine! Agh! I just couldn’t accept it.



And I know that this was not entirely the director’s fault. I’m guessing maybe Sarah Geronimo’s mom, who happens to be her manager too, didn’t allow the kiss to happen. I don’t blame her for being overprotective but somebody should have explained to her what filmmaking is all about. Again, it’s always my pet peeve when people don’t understand the art. The hug certainly ruined it for me. I’m sorry but it was so corny and awkward and in a way cheated the viewers. I felt cheated. If the story said that they were conservative Christians then I would understand why a hug would suffice but then again, hello I don’t think there’s anything Christian about making the prince charming an editor of a men’s magazine that sells sex.

But overall the movie was good. The kilig moments worked for me because the actors did it naturally. John Lloyd was just sooo cute in this film. It’s typical for romantic comedies to have mushy quotable quotes but in this movie the non-verbal dialogues worked better and were acted more realistically. The supporting casts’ adlibs also fit in perfectly especially Al Tantay (Laida’s lovable father), Matet (the typical pranka and practical-minded officemate) and Rowell Santiago (Miggy's older half-brother and President of the mother company). Sarah was definitely a revelation in this film. The character was tailor-made for her which made her lovable, even though there were some parts in the movie when she was just annoyingly “too perky.”

This made think though, is this story ever possible in real life? Can a Lopez spawn fall in love with a middle-class lass within only 3 weeks? The story qualifies Miggy’s down-to-earth girlfriend choice by making him a royal Halfling himself. And there’s also the factor of him missing his mommy so the “desperate” and immediate attraction must have stemmed from that. Proximity and vulnerability when mixed together concocts a love tonic. Hmm… Oh well, fairy tales always had the prince marrying the maid. But then again, even fairy tales end in a kiss. Ugh, I just can’t over it. And for that I'm only giving this movie 4 out of 5 HEARTS on the Mush Meter.