by Jamiellie Brianne S. Chua
3SLP
“Timing… such a b*tch.”
Based on the novel written by Bianca
Bernardino, She’s Dating the Gangster, one would expect the film adaptation to
follow the cliché bad-boy-meets-good-girl love story and end on a “and they
lived happily ever after” note. Especially with the KathNiel tandem playing out
the lead roles, the film was just dripping with cliché. But wait. There’s more.
The film begins with Kenji de los
Reyes (Richard Gomez) giving out a speech in his friend’s wedding reception.
And as he does, his son, Kenneth (Daniel Padilla), was in a bathroom stall
making out with a girl. The girl’s grandfather stumbles upon them and chases
after Kenneth. Thus, the wedding reception was ruined. Kenji reprimands his
son, but Kenneth replies harshly by bringing up his father’s ‘affair’ and
wished for Kenji to have died instead of his mom. The next day, as Kenneth arrives
home drunk, the news flashes that several people have gone missing in a plane
crash. Kenji was one of those people. As he arrives at the airport demanding
for information on his father’s whereabouts, he meets Kelay Dizon (Kathryn
Bernardo), a girl who claims to be his father’s daughter. More questions rise
about his father’s past. Kenneth and Kelay reluctantly work together and get to
know each other as they go on a misadventure to seek answers, search for the
father, and unravel the past.
The KathNiel chemistry is undeniably
charming and appealing. Despite their usual delivery of cute cliché romantic
plots wherein the usual would be teenagers-blinded-by-juvenile-love-going-against-the-world,
in this film, a practical and mature side of love is served. The rest of the
characters did well, too. The continuous twists are inevitably unfortunately
terribly teleserye-cliché, but the responses of each character certainly go
straight to the heart and bring out feelings and secret hopes that one would
often deny. What I do criticize is the portrayal of a gangster, especially
during the 90s. The bandana and skateboard are not enough. The ‘gang’ he
belongs to seems more like a mischievous barkada. Not a gang. And about the
“albolaryo” look, it was no wardrobe misfortune. It would be one of the
questions to be answered as the past is unraveled. The ending was not that
difficult to predict, but the feelings are difficult to forget.
The film is quite William
Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” mixed with Nicholas Sparks’s “A Walk to
Remember”. The classic cliché jives are inevitably present but the modern and
realistic Filipino touches keep it from turning into another fairytale.
Definitely a refreshing air for the hopeful and hopeless romantics.
“I can’t breathe.”
