A comedy of manners

Film Review: You To Me Are Everything

MANILA, Philippines - The Dingdong Dantes-Marian Rivera tandem is such a winner on teleseryes. It’s only natural that Regal Entertainment and GMA Films would mine the popularity of the love team and produce a movie that, once again, carries on the tradition of taking a really popular song from the ‘80s and ‘90s and turning it into the title of a feature film. Directed by Mark Reyes V, and with a live pig named Snowy to add to the cuteness quotient, You To Me Are Everything is a “fish out of water” story that’s played as a “comedy of manners,” and highlights the sparks that fly between the two main protagonists, and the suspicion that what we see on the screen belies the real-life romance and relationship that exist between the two.

Iska (Marian) lives a simple rustic life in the mountains of Benguet, selling strawberry jam from a roadside stand; while Rafael (Dingdong) lives in Manila, where he works hard and parties even harder, filling the society pages as one of the more sought-after bachelors. In a simple twist of fate, all of Rafael’s material belongings — a Ferrari, a high-tech, computerized, voice-activated home — are foreclosed by Oriental Bank, when his congressman-father is arrested on corruption charges. In synchronicity, Iska stumbles upon the knowledge that her absent father is an industrialist/banker, who now wants to make amends for having fathered her, and bequeaths her with over a hundred million pesos and a seat on the Board of Directors of Oriental Bank. Her move to Manila means finding her a home, and she’s given one of the bank’s foreclosed assets — no prize for guessing which one. As fortune would have it, one drunken night brings Rafael back to his former home, and he meets Iska in the comfort room!

On that premise, a major part of the film is driven by the culture shocks that await Iska when she comes down to Manila, and ditto the adjustments Rafael has to contend with when faced with living in a shack, and looking for work. It’s played mostly for comedy and this section of the film works winningly, as direk Mark has Iska bringing Snowy with her to Manila, has her encountering wide screen home entertainment systems, modern massage chairs and the bank’s Board of Directors. She takes on Rafael as her business manager, and at first, he sees it as an opportunity to “get back in the game.”

As the film progresses, much is made of “values;” of the stark contrast between the simple, yet rich life Iska led in the mountains, and the money-ed but relatively empty life one leads here in Manila. It’s when these lessons in life, and moral lessons rear their head that the film seems hurried and abrupt. From a smooth exposition of the “comedy of manners” treatment, we’re thrust into a final coda that very much wants to impart wisdom and life-altering lessons. While honorable in intention, the actual execution is a tad clumsy, and it seems were rushed into satisfactory resolution and the requisite happy ending. It’s the getting there that gives the film its winsome charm; and Marian is pitch perfect as a rough at the edges probinsiyana, loud and giddy with oh-gosh excitement at all she encounters in Manila. Rafael is the more complicated character, resentful of his father, and confused by the sudden reversal of fortune he now faces.

The audience watching the screening I caught loved the chemistry betwen the two proven stars, and while lightweight by design, the film is a welcome respite from all the politics wafting in the air — and perhaps we all need that trip to Benguet!