Mara Navarro took sign language lessons to be able to communicate with her niece Hailey who was deaf. When she was depressed over an unexpected career setback, her deaf sign language teacher Gali Pastrano (who just so happened to also be her next-door neighbor in their condo) became her close friend. When Mara accepted Gali's invitation to be his partner for his dance recital, their friendship would seem to have blossomed into love. However, anxieties arise questioning if a deaf person can really have a serious long-term relationship with one with normal hearing?
This is the first time I had seen Maine Mendoza in a film since I knew her first as Yaya Dub on the Eat Bulaga TV show. She was cute in an unconventional way that fit right into her character Mara. However, this film was a bigger acting vehicle for her co-star Carlo Aquino as Gali than it was for her, and Mendoza fully embraced that in her supportive portrayal. Once more, Aquino proved his prodigious acting talents. He certainly rose to the enormous challenge of portraying a deaf character very convincingly, we fully empathized with his frustrations and insecurities.
Mara's family or educational background was not really necessary to the love story. It was not pertinent that Mara was a cum laude graduate from UST on whom her family pinned high hopes. She could have just suffered any other depressing situation so Gali can enter her life to comfort her. I did not hear Gali encourage her to reconsider her career decisions. In fact, Mara's being an architect was never again brought up in the final act. While we learn about Gani's big dream of becoming a US-trained educator for deaf children, we don't really know what Mara plans are after the movie ends.
The main love story in itself was very simple. Hearing girl meets and falls in love with deaf boy. Will their relationship work or not? I don't know how commonly deaf-hearing relationships occur, but based on difficulties of dealing with deaf elderly relatives, one can imagine the strain of coping with the impaired communications. The film presents a lot of difficulties encountered by both parties involved in such a special relationship, both in social and personal situations. This film was very eye-opening and educational in that way.
This is a very brave Filipino to have one of its main protagonists Gali to be profoundly deaf. This meant that all his lines will have to be either in text via their mobile phones, or more frequently, in sign language. There were entire scenes with no spoken dialogue at all. There were even some scenes in complete silence, without musical score. I appreciated those immersive scenes when all the sounds fade to mere beats and murmurs to simulate how the deaf Gali perceived the situation he was in.
I thought this full commitment to a portray quiet disability like deafness was pretty risky for a mainstream film like this one.When Mara was signing, she would also say what she meant. However when Gali signed, we need to read his lines off an LCD screen or off the subtitles. Merely reading a line does not have the same effect with hearing a line delivered with the proper timing and voice inflection. Director Prime Cruz made you feel how it must be to be deaf, and it definitely was not easy. This film worked to promote understanding, compassion and respect for the hearing-impaired we encounter. 8/10.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar