Sex and the City, Pinoy style

Jeffrey Jeturian’s Bridal Shower has been billed a sex comedy, which is apt because it has a lot of sex and a lot of comedy. Seiko Films’ entry to the Metro Manila Film Festival is a definite crowd-pleaser, if the premiere I attended was any indication. The laughs came fast and frequent enough, signaling that a good time was being had by many.

If I were to liken the movie to a love affair, though, it would be an affair after the honeymoon period, when the heady excitement of the "first time" starts to give way to the awfully familiar.

In the story, three girlfriends work in an advertising agency and regularly meet up in the office stairwell to compare notes on their love lives. There’s the sexually liberated Tates (Dina Bonnevie), who’s not above playing footsie with male clients to secure big accounts. She’s also not above bribing a judge to secure the annulment of her boyfriend Mickey (Christian Vasquez), whom she eventually plans to marry.

Friend number two is Sonia (Francine Prieto), a sexually liberated nymphet who’s dating two guys at the same time: the Alabang-residing, old-rich Juancho (Juancho Valentino) and the artsy but jologs Bryan (Douglas Robinson). When she gets pregnant but doesn’t have a clue who the father is, she has to choose: will it be the steady but boring Juancho, who "drives a BMW on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, a Volvo T-Th-S and a Jaguar Sundays and holidays,"or Bryan, who’s poor but "sarap to the bones" in bed?

Last but not the least of the trio is Katie (Cherry Pie Picache), who is prevented from being sexually liberated by a short haircut and a weight problem. Feeling left out of the sexcapades of her two more conventionally fetching pals, she haunts the chatrooms of the Internet as "Wetchick," and attracts a virtual boyfriend by the name of "Swimbod."After their date to "eyeball" goes awry (in one of the movie’s funniest episodes), she meets Joebert (Alfred Vargas), an innocent-looking macho dancer, at Sonia’s bridal shower. Joebert seems sweet and sincere enough, but what is he really after–a relationship with Katie or a chance to be in a commercial?

These are the sort of questions posed in Bridal Shower, and you wouldn’t be faulted if it put you in mind of other movies, from You’ve Got Mail to Pedro Almodovar’s Talk to Her and even The Vagina Monologues. (The bed scene between Katie, who wants to keep the light off, and Joebert, who keeps switching it back on, twists one famous monologue.) But the biggest and most obvious influence is Sex and the City. Followers of the series will recognize the Samantha character in Tates, who runs into men–and even one woman–everywhere she goes, former lovers who call her by different names. Sonia, meanwhile, is forced to sign a prenup by her formidable, domineering mother-in-law, echoing a similar situation in the HBO sitcom a few seasons ago.

But Bridal Shower isn’t just a local retread of Sex and the City. The cast is winning, especially Dina Bonnevie, who displays heretofore unseen gifts as a comedic actress. Cherry Pie Picache and Alfred Vargas play their roles with a poignant truth and chemistry, making their story the most compelling. And newcomer Francine Prieto is definitely a knockout. It’s a shame her story peters out halfway into the movie, but I guess time and a few more roles will tell if her talent matures, and if she ripens into an acting force rather than mere eye candy.

Directed by Jeffrey Jeturian from a script by Chris Martinez, Bridal Shower proves Jeturian can hop film genres anytime he feels like it. Full of clever one-liners and bursts of visual style, the story has the frenetic energy of a music video in some parts (though a good 15 minutes could have been cut to tighten a sagging mid-section). The acclaimed director of Pila Balde and Tuhog shows a natural affinity for comedy. One of the conceits of the movie is that the girls work in an ad agency, so their boyfriends are caught in freeze-frame and described in now-legendary ad copy like "finger-lickin’ good," "tender, juicy, tasty" and "just right to the bite."

But even if it’s fair to objectify the men for a change, it’s hard to find deep truths about relationships in this movie. By the end, all three of the heroines may get what they want, but the viewer may be left wondering: In the game of love, who’s really winning?