BLISS RATING: ★★★★+
“Love is a game that both can play and both win.” – Eva Gabor
This is a good movie, but it is not great. I did not find it all that interesting, creative, or entertaining. This is NOT to say it is badly acted. It is not. But the story itself was tired and uncreative. I found it uninspiring and lacked a spark that the original series had. Let me explain.
The movie became so predictable for me that I got bored with it. It seemed just a bit too contrived and really did not allow the actors to fully shine in their roles. They were all good but seemed, at least to me, a bit lifeless. Kokoy deSantos extends his role as Gaveel. He continues his torturous relationship with his family especially when Tita Susan (Angie Castrence), arrives. Kokoy is at his best when he can show the depth of his emotional pains in conflict scenes, and he does so brilliantly with the struggles with his Tita. He also displays much tenderness and a cute connection with Cairo (Elijah Canlas).
We get to see them together, but only for brief periods, mostly in comedic story lines or contrived romantic scenes. I would like to have seen a deeper connection between the two and the augmentation of a more meaningful relationship. It gets to a tipping point, but never quite reaches it for me. I know that I am perhaps in the minority who did not believe their relationship in Gameboys Season One. There was just no ‘spark’ (chemistry) there; it never seemed intense to me. I had this same reaction for this movie as well. There is no intimate connection with each other besides the physical one. I wanted to feel something between them. I just did not sense it.
Elijah Canlas is simply superb in this series. I completely bought his rendition of Cairo. He has seasoned into his role with adeptness and tenacity. Cairo established his own personality and really became the foundation of this connection. He also seemed more intense in this relationship than Gaveel. That is not surprising as Gaveel is still trying to figure himself out and deal with the fallout from guilt. Cairo has grown and is becoming a person unto himself. I was most impressed with Elijah’s performance and his grasp of being able to see the complete picture even before it was fully known.
I do wish that the movie would have developed and solidified their relationship more, however. But unfortunately, more characters were thrown in to divert the story into different directions. Their friend Michael, (Kyle Valeno), by happenstance comes across them and, needing a place to stay, is invited to say with them. At nearly the same time, Wesley (Miggy Torres), another mutual friend, shows up. It just so happened that the two of them had been in a brief relationship previously, but it was not meant to be then.
But now, having proximity again, their relationship begins to blossom with both understanding better what the issues are. While they are an adorable couple together, and it was certainly a nice story, it all seemed so contrived and too convenient to be believable. It just seemed so out of place and a bit too superfluous. Then another one of Michael’s brief liaisons shows up who also happens to be a mutual friend, Achilles (Kych Minemoto). When he sees Michael, chaos ensues but eventually they are all able to resolve their discomforts. Yet, again, it all seemed just a bit too contrived and unfocused. However, this does give Kokoy an opportunity to show the depth of Gaveel’s emotional pain.
A key figure in Season one, Pearl (Adriana So), who was the glue and the tether to Gaveel and Cairo’s relationship, seems relegated to being light fluff here and a superficial role. I bit disappointing as she was so integral to the first series.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this movie? This might be a bit unorthodox but for me who really “stole” this whole series is Angie Castrence as Tita Susan. Her character played off the vulnerabilities and weaknesses of Gaveel and she knew how to manipulate all of that effectively. Ironically, these exchanges with her also brought out the best acting in both Kokoy and Elijah. Gavell slipped into his guilt mode and capitulated to her wishes until Cairo could not take any more of her abuse and stood up to her. Finally, Gaveel had to stand up to her as well. But this exchange made their relationship go from a fantasy to a reality as they both had to make decisions that not only affected their own lives but their relationship as well. Angie’s portrayal of Susan is brilliant. She controlled and outmaneuvered their comebacks because she knew more than they did about what was going on in the family. She used that to try and get what she wanted. This small, but noteworthy role, had a major impact on the entire story.
I know I have been critical of this movie. It was just not as impactful as I thought it would be and certainly not as memorable as the first season of Gameboys. It lost its magic and gave us no real depth to any of its characters except for Cairo. The ending was pretty much telegraphed from the beginning but there were some heart rendering emotional farewell scenes at the end. Let me restate – this is not a bad movie by any means nor is it poorly acted. It is awesome on both fronts.
But for me, I wanted it to be deeper, with more time spent in seeing how these two would be as a couple without so much the reliance on seeing each other as ‘baby’.
Leave a Reply