‘Only We Know’ shows there’s still life after loss

On the surface, pairing a former Kapamilya executive with the Kapuso Primetime King as friends-maybe-lovers on the big screen may seem like an odd choice. However, let writer-director Irene Villamor work her magic to make Charo Santos-Concio and Dingdong Dantes as this year’s most formidable love team. Sort of.

In Villamor’s latest film “Only We Know,” now out in cinemas, Santos-Concio plays retired arts teacher Betty, who finds solace in her neighbor Ryan (Dantes), who lost his wife (Max Collins) a year earlier due to brain aneurysm.

Over time, the unlikely pair grows close. Ryan convinces Betty to try what appears to be a marijuana joint, and they enjoy being high together. Betty, in turn, encourages Ryan to seek professional help to process his grief and even suggests casual sex with potential bachelorettes if it might make him happy.

The film plays with audience expectations that they’ll end up as a couple, mirroring Betty’s best friend Cora (Shamaine Buencamino), who suspects they are in a May-December relationship.

But both Betty and Ryan insist they are just friends, two people who happen to be in the right place at the right time, needing each other’s company. In fact, there’s only one kissing scene, and it’s on the cheek, which is expected to draw strong reactions from the audience.

Whether viewers believe they are truly just friends or see something deeper beyond their platonic bond, there’s no denying there is chemistry between the leads, thanks to a strong script that makes the kilig moments feel earned rather than forced.

Roles played by older women often fall into stereotypes, especially mothers or grandmothers. Santos-Concio herself currently plays a grandma-type role in “FPJ’s Batang Quiapo.”

That’s why it’s incredibly refreshing to see Betty, in her senior years, portrayed as a woman who still deserves to feel youthful and alive.

Betty isn’t a typical female character either. She’s separated from her cheating ex-husband, slightly flirts with a Richard Gere look-alike during a trip to Europe to feel a bit adventurous, and cannot bear children. These characteristics make Betty feel like a real woman with real experiences – someone we might know in real life.

Santos-Concio portrays Betty with realism, care, and sensitivity that it’s no wonder she was one of the most sought-after actresses of her time before stepping behind the scenes as an executive and producer for decades, only to return to the front of the camera. A particularly poignant monologue, where Betty shares that she’s experienced “many deaths” in her life due to personal loss, solidifies how radiant an actress she is.

Dantes, reuniting with Villamor after their 2018 film with Anne Curtis, “Sid and Aya: Not a Love Story,” proves himself her equal, portraying Ryan with depth beyond his grief.

The way Dantes shows Ryan mourning his late wife and deepening his care for Betty is subtle yet moving, as when he suffers a panic attack while recalling the day his wife died, paralleling a revelation by Betty.

Of course, strong chemistry and performances can only go so far if the script doesn’t handle complex characters with nuance. Fortunately, “Only We Know” does. It explores the question of whether there’s still life after a great loss through its philosophical lens of existentialism, introduced right in the opening scene where Betty teaches the concept to her class before her retirement.

Not surprisingly to her fans, Villamor packages all this effortlessly in a script filled with relatable dialogue and a keen eye for detail that translates into beautiful cinematography by Pao Orendain.

Villamor avoids the predictable route as well. She not only resists explicitly pairing the leads romantically in the end, but also knows when to end the story, choosing not to show how their friendship-sort-of-not-romance concludes. Instead, she leaves just enough breadcrumbs for the audience to optimistically interpret that Betty and Ryan will be okay, as a couple or not.

Fans of Villamor’s earlier films like “Sid and Aya,” “Ulan,” and “Five Breakups and a Romance” will not be disappointed with her latest effort.

While there are a few things left to be desired in “Only We Know,” particularly how their tastes and hobbies define their dynamic which felt underexplored, its few flaws are far outweighed by its strengths thanks to Villamor’s storytelling and the stellar chemistry and performances from the unlikely pair. Four and a half stars out of five.

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