A melodrama that tugs at the heartstrings - STAR BYTES by Butch Francisco

Abandonada was the title of the Regal movie that exploited the personal woes of Alma Moreno after she was dumped by Dolphy for Zsa Zsa Padilla some 11 years ago. The soon-to-be-shown Abandonada by Viva Films is also exploitative – but in a different way. It exploits the viewers’ emotions – especially those who are suckers for heavy melodramas.

Directed by Joel Lamangan, Abando-nada casts Maricel Soriano as a nurse who goes to Canada to help augment the income of her good-for-nothing husband, played by Edu Manzano. But while on foreign shores, she is jailed for the death of a young patient under her care. After her sentenced is served, she returns home only to discover that her husband had already married young heiress Angelu de Leon.

While she has no more love for her husband and has no desire to win him back, she still has unfinished business with him. Their son is in his custody and she vows to get the child at all costs. Never mind if she has to seek employment as a laundrywoman in the house of Edu and Angelu. This way, she can be near her son and, at the same time, plan their getaway.

Actually, had the screen character of Maricel Soriano been a little more aware of her legal rights, this movie would have been over in 15 minutes. All she had to do as the legal wife was drag Edu to court and charge him with bigamy. But then, had she done this, we wouldn’t have a tearjerker. What we’ll probably have is a revival of lawyer Jose Sison’s Ipaglaban Mo, the TV series.

But even if Maricel Soriano’s character chose to go the roundabout way to get justice, that’s still fine with us. Abandonada, after all, is still a well-crafted melodrama. Its storyline may border on the implausible, but at least, the director sees to it that most of its scenes are executed in the most realistic manner possible.

Of course, in spite of the director’s attempt to stick to realism, the soap opera ingredients are still swarming all over the film. And it is for this reason that I’m betting a whole month’s salary that this film’s going to hit the jackpot at the box office.

As a drama movie, it tugs at the heartstrings of the viewers with every twist and turn of the story and mercilessly plays with the emotions of everybody. In some parts of the movie, you will also encounter scenes that are hopelessly mushy. For sure, those who want their movies sad will have a good cry over this one.

But I’m quite disappointed with the way Edu’s character is written. So, he’s the bad guy in the movie. But the poor guy doesn’t even have one redeeming value left to qualify him as a human being. His character is so bad and evil, he makes Judas Iscariot look like a saint.

The character of the nursemaid in the film (played by Ynez Veneracion) also suffers the same fate. She is also out-and-out bad, she practically has no second thoughts about killing another human being.

But I guess that’s the way things are in melodramas. Characters are either black or white.

My biggest quarrel with this film, however, would have to be over that chase scene that serves as the climax. In this part of the story, Edu tells Maricel to just go ahead and take their child. He’ll just make it appear that the kid had been abducted by somebody else. Of course, this is just a trap he lays out for his ex-wife. But gullible ex-wife bites and believes every single word – completely forgetting the fact that her dear ex-husband can never be trusted with anything ... no, not even with her old toothbrush.

And so the big chase scene begins – with the movie starting to look like an outtake from Rudy Fernandez’ latest action flick.

Without this entire chase and bang-bang sequence, Abandonada would have been much more focused as a melodrama.

But over-all, and in spite of this unnecessary excursion into the action genre, I would say that Abandonada is still a very decent dramatic vehicle for Maricel who turns in a fine performance in this film.

Rated B by the Film Ratings Board, this well-made melodrama is really worth a trip to the movie theater – especially for those who love tearjerkers. Just don’t forget to bring your hankies.