That Thing Called “Less is More”

I was finally able to watch the “phenomenal” original CinemaOne movie “That Thing Called Tadhana” starring Angelica Panganiban and JM de Guzman. And when I say that I have finished a Tagalog movie with my beau – from start to finish – says a lot about the film. Well, fine, Honey, has a crush on Angelica which might be the reason why he also “enjoyed” the film but the main reason why we liked the film is because it is both very emotional and funny sans the over-acting of actors and cheesy dialogue usually found in mainstream Philippine Cinema.

For starters, the acting of both the actors are so natural and candid, it seems like they are just on their normal day-to-day lives. We don’t see a male actor crying like a baby under the rain (who does that?) or a female lead who is hysterical over the most trivial things. Err, Angelica has some “hysterical” scenes of her making a scene in the movie but she made it comical but still heartfelt which made her character endearing. I read somewhere in Facebook that when she read the script when the role was offered to her, she immediately shouted a resounding “Yes, akin na’to!” Maybe it was also due to the numerous references of this movie to her current boyfriend, John Lloyd, that made her decide that this movie hits close to home.

Many of us can relate to the simple and uncomplicated premise of the story which by the way is like a Richard Linklater, roadtrip kind of movie. The writer-director Antoinette Jadaone had successfully woven the story in the most simplistic way as her story of the heart pierced through the arrow but was still able to evoke lots of emotions from the audience, myself included.

This is why “Less is More” rings true for these kinds of movie. This is the kind of movie that has been peeled off of the many layers of predictable, melodramatic, pretentious storylines.