A Second Chance – The Movie: A Sort-of Review

Life is not a tower of peanut butter sandwiches.



Credits: https://taylordfood.wordpress.com/

Right off the bat, let me say this. This is NOT a second chance, folks. This is technically the third chance. 

If you want to come in better equipped for this movie sequel, you need to see the “One More Chance” part which started all this “hugot” heart-wrenching lines on coming to terms with love the second time around. Then, you will understand why literally the second chance had passed for the two main characters, Popoy and Basha, when they chose to start over after one significantly messy breakup, and this chapter is their third chance. You will understand the engineer-architect partnership as well as the Thursday dinners that they had to have with their circle of friends, which called for at least one occasion or significant event to be celebrated each time. And yeah, you will understand THAT “shampoo” joke (That one I never got the entire time I was in the movie house, considering that I've seen the first movie more than once).



I'm writing this sort-of review, fresh from seeing the movie hours ago. I haven't read any movie review from the authorities out there. I steered clear of opinions and any article discussing perspectives on the movie to have an objective, clean slate before going in and seeing the movie. I heard rave reviews, but those were expected patriotism coming from the network channel and stars sharing the same movie outfit, Star Cinema. I came in “briefed” with only three spoilers courtesy of watching accidentally the night time talk show, Tonight with Boy Abunda: (1) Popoy's struggles over a business on the verge of bankruptcy, (2) falling in love with failure, and (3) the what-if vs. what-is analogy. On hindsight, these were actually the skeleton, the three main bones, that make up the story of “A Second Chance”.

Recently, Star Cinema was more experimental and veered away from the usual story-telling sequence. A Second Chance's story was hinged on an amateur thesis interview conducted by a Psychology student with the married couple, Popoy and Basha. There is similarity with the approach done for another Star Cinema movie, Bride for Rent, but this one took a more serious note. Such experimental takes are more than welcome. We are tired of the usual chronology of events from childhood to adulthood, from January to December, from friendship to romance.

Popoy and Basha's transition from the just-married to struggling-to-stay-married phases seemed believable. Basha's ever-present wigs and the back-and-forth from chic to “losyang” were there to pace the audience as we witnessed the wife's evolution throughout the different stages of marriage. The items of interest during the couple's arguments ranged from trivial cutlery and attempts at interior design to the gnawing probability of a third party. There was the attempt to capture as closely as possible these real-couple conflicts. But hey, you have to fit all seven years in two hours of movie time! It felt strangled and heavy, at least for me. But I guess, that was the intent anyway.

Arci Muñoz and Billy Crawford's characters were new in this sequel and were introduced for conflict. For me, they were not perfectly effective in coming across as believably whole characters. They appeared as almost one-dimension caricature-ish accidents that were written out to be inclined on particular mannerisms and ideals. But they did manage to deliver the expected rift to tip off further the ongoing imbalance between the married couple.

Khalil Ramos' character as the young, wide-eyed, most junior employee of Popoy and Basha's firm was more memorable. He was actually there, present. With his convenience-store morning coffee and enthusiasm. Even with less dialogue and exposure, he came across as very relatable. In his short moments as Noel the character, we went back to that time when we were that same twenty-something hopeful, with so much faith in the world.

I felt that there was conscious effort to incorporate “hugot” quotable lines in the movie. Too conscious in fact, that the lines had to be in English prose –- the kind of well-written reflections you get after going on a solitary retreat or getting drunk. These lines provided cinematic appeal to the mandatory scenes of pain and angst: the close-ups of the actors, the tears, the pregnant pause. But they are far from the real deal. It's kind of hard to imagine real people conversing like that. Can't blame the writer. The bar was set too high by “One More Chance” whose lines became so classic that they stuck with us for nearly a decade. I bet we will still be quoting these for a much longer time. A Second Chance, on the other hand, was too choreographed to really resonate, to gain even “semi-real” depth.

What was my take-away? I don't want to use the what-if, what-is, what-was and what-will-be analogy here, though I think that that was the point the movie was trying to get across. Good point, but it seemed overused. I hope the analogy wasn't mentioned more than once in the film. A scene or a message, if strong enough, can stand on its own and need not be repeated to drive a point.

I'm allowed my own perspective, I hope. My take-away from the movie? Hmm. Less is more.

For me, the more poignant scenes – the ones that moved me – were those with less dialogues. The wide-eyed innocence in Khalil Ramos' Noel as everybody else left the office. That scene when Basha came home and hugged her mother. No words, just tears. Several shots of peanut butter sandwich towers throughout the film – the first one perfectly balanced, the last one almost leaning to collapse. Those said a lot.

I wish there were less words in some pivotal scenes. To show that Popoy and Basha were no longer sitting next to each other. That Popoy cared. That Basha was in so much pain. When they remembered their marriage vows. That way, I (and audiences like me) would have more time to empathize and feel the crests and troughs of holding on and letting go.

Overall, A Second Chance delivered. On cinema and box office expectations. Tears, “hugot” lines, and ever afters. These are the things that sell. 

But life, the real one outside the silver screen, is more complex --- salty and sweet, well-measured and planned but with surprising degrees of failure. Like a tower of peanut butter sandwiches. Or maybe not.

SPOILER ALERT. Stop here if you have not seen the movie yet and do not want to get some juicy bits ahead. Don't tell me I didn't warn you.

The resolution/ending seemed too easy for me, condensed in a couple of scenes: a toast among friends and a dejavu moment to happily tie the “boxed” story telling.

However, there were more complex issues presented that were too deep-rooted to be swiftly resolved with the usual kiss and make up. The two main characters were struggling internally with an array of emotions. There is less question on how well these were portrayed by seasoned actors, John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo. But the development of such intricate weave of characterization may have been limited by the two-hour movie length or probably the more popular call for cinematic closure.

• Popoy, the husband character, had people issues, egoistic tendencies, was a habitual drinker, cannot tell good employees from bad, and walked away when push came to shove.
• Basha had self-esteem issues from staying at home and away from work for too long, as well as medical issues after losing her first baby. Yet how easy was it for her to get pregnant when everything suddenly fell into place?

There are a few things, okay several, that I couldn't move on from. Some small but crucial reality checks that I supposed would have floated had the writers and production staff been allowed more time to brainstorm, turn the story plot over, and digest the details.

• First things first. In the early years of marriage when you are starting to build a home, literally and figuratively, you do not go and gamble on a startup business where you could end up losing your entire nest egg.
  
  
• Startups are just that. Starting your way up. You do not win all bids. Not all days will be rosy with perfect and responsible employees, very sympathetic and can-afford-anything clients, and debt-free financial statements. Even without people issues and your penchant of accepting more than you can handle, there is a huge chance that you will lose. Big time. You will probably break-even or gain some, but you will not earn huge in the first years. So how did Popoy amass enough savings to buy Basha's dream “lot” in a lovely prime area with a view? And yet chose to settle with his wife (in a rented place, I presume) in this just-okay location? Practical decisions there, man.
  
  
• Don't Popoy and Basha have godparents or counselors to advise them on non-negotiables? Like maybe, a fixed source of income, insurance and open communication. They have a circle of amazingly stick-through-thick-and-thin friends, who were distributed along a cinematically designed spectrum of the happily settled and bitter. Mother, Uncle and Auntie were present but they didn't seem to get the chance to give advice or be consulted.
  
  
• One person handling the books (Finance) and cash including payout of salaries. Oh boy, that's a recipe for disaster. Segregation of incompatible duties, anyone? Okay, the fictional company is small, but there just seems to be no semblance of check and balance there. That's my auditor self talking, sorry.
  
  
• Since when did computed deficit came out from the sum of net loss and unpaid liabilities? Should I be more concerned with cash flows or net loss? Well, you lost me at the “summed up” deficit.
  
  
• Pardon the ignorance, but what kind of research and development on ground-breaking construction technology would cost millions of pesos? What prototype are we talking about? Are you supposed to build something, test it with a simulated earthquake, raze it down when it fails testing, and start all over again? Or culture some genetically modified cement in a lab? Sorry, this is really too much for me, to justify those millions of losses.
  
  
• Getting a visa to work in the UK and flying out in one week? Hmm, well, unless you're the President or a very important person. Or if you plan to “play tourist” for a while.
  
  
  Perhaps, with more time or a second chance...i's will be dotted and the t's crossed. Hopefully, more “thinking” movies than romanticized takes on reality.

Ciao dears!