Soft Hearts (Pusong Momon)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C-     Extras: D     Film: B-

 

 

Annie is a nice girl who is out one evening having a good time when she finds herself attracted to a drunken Ron, who she proceeds to have sex with in his car.  When she gets pregnant, he finds out, but the surprise is on her when he turns out to have a lover named Nick in Soft Hearts (1998), a comedy from the Philippines that is not as much of a sitcom as it sounds.

 

Of course, this also sounds like the plot of anything bad TV can come up with lately, but was made a few years ago.  Add how it comes form another country and you get a potentially interesting story without all the pretensions.  The DVD case wants to term it a screwball comedy, but it really does not go in that direction.  Instead, it is a very of-the-moment kind of comedy that has the comedy inside a light drama.  The laughs are rarely out of exaggerated situations, and the film is trying to argue that a three-parent family could arise out of the chaos.

 

Directors Joel Lamangan & Enrico (actor Eric under a first-name variant) Quizon do not have an agenda here, and the film is not outright political, give or take its simple and practical acceptance of homosexuality.  Though unrated, the film is nothing more than a light R, due mostly to the situations at hand.  There is good chemistry going here among the three principles: Lorna Tolentino, Albert Martinez, and Eric Quizon.  The screenplay by Ricardo Lee and Mel Mendoza-Del Rosario is not bad, and though it may seem to drift into My Best Friends Wedding, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Bridget Jones’ Diary type territory, it never becomes as plastic as the two former films.

 

The full screen, color image is average, from an older analog transfer, but this is a nicely shot film that is visually amusing by cinematographer Romeo Vitug.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is problematic, sounding a bit compressed throughout, but this is also obviously a low-budget film.  These combine for an experience that is still of DVD origins, above VHS or some CD-V import, and is also still watchable with subtitles most viewers will need to enjoy the film with.  There are no extras.

 

It would also be fair to say that some points made in the film will be missed by people not familiar with the Philippines way of life, but the film overall is not “so foreign” a viewing experience.  It does sometimes-familiar material with flair and spontaneity that makes it a pleasure to watch.  Soft Hearts is a pleasant sit-though that deserves a wider audience.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo