Movie Review: No Other Woman: The mistress-wife relationship: a review

for almost a month, no other woman, has been ravaging box office results in the country. well, if we do the math, if it grossed P220M and a ticket costs P161, approximately 1.3M have watched it at the cinema. this doesn't account for the pirated copies, of course.

the strength of this movie belongs to what the two co-producers do best. viva comes in with its tight script and witty dialogue, while star cinema comes with its eye for the production. this is also a movie that has a good script and can work regardless of who the actors are but the director and the whole production team has to be intact.

let's not forget the formula. other than the witty dialogue that every filipino can relate to (allusion rich as far as the context of the Philippines is concerned), the movie had less than the usual confrontation scenes. there were only a few slapping, crying, violent, over acting scenes. everything was done with precision and subtlety. the fighting scene at the end was needed because no filipino wife-mistress drama would be complete without any physical scene. remove that scene, the movie will not lose anything because it has other things going for it. the locations were maximized showing only what was necessary of the grandeur of the resort, the homes, the stores, and the restaurants.

another plus point is that sex was not a marketing gimmick. if the love scenes were edited out, the movie will still hold but it is in these scenes that derek ramsey shows he can be a great dramatic actor. his eyes were bloodshot and close to tears when he was with kara the first time.

the story is simple. a very young couple, ram and cha, are happily married. ram, a former playboy, is a high-class furniture seller, whereas cha comes from a nouveau riche family and a housewife, of course. conflict begins when ram meets kara at a resort where his furniture will be part of the amenities. they meet in the sea where kara misses ram's bald head by a few inches.

so, the playboy in ram comes out and kara, finding out he's married, says the rule is to not fall in love with each other. things turn worse when cha discovers the affair and events logically fall into place after that. upon confirmation and confrontation, ram decides to end the affair. kara is cold and seemed not to mind it until ram brings cha to the resort.

at the resort, kara and cha engage in a cat fight and upon their return to manila, cha says no more because the whole incident is making her do who she is not (being sensual and wearing a bikini, having candles in the bedroom when all she wants to do is yoga, crochet, bake angry birds cupcakes). ram loses everything, mistress, wife, and business. one night, as he is closing his store, kara comes over and asks if they could talk. he refuses and drives his pick up as fast as he could but she has a topdown sportscar. predictably, he meets an accident that seems fatal but really, it's not.

at the hospital, kara is asked all the questions a wife should know the answer to. she says she's not his wife. she calls cha. cha is next seen at the chapel, rosary in hand, and kara talks to her. i now forget if she apologized but she did say it was all her fault and that ram should forgive her. ram wakes up and sees ... (i won't spoil it anymore) and years later, the scene shows ram with a baby ...

***************

come up with witty dialogue and put it in the trailer. BAM. viewers will watch it. i went to the cinema because i wanted to hear the actress, carmi martin, deliver that line, "itago mo na ang lucy torres, ilabas mo na si gretchen barreto. ako na ang bahala sa red stilleto," as an advice to her daughter, cha, who had just caught the ram-kara affair.

now, production wise, the scenes are well-staged down to the last detail except for the final scene. the make-up is right and appropriate. anne curtis, who plays kara, is one of those actresses who look pretty with minimal makeup and she registers well on the camera. thus, it was good to see her scenes on the beach without makeup. the same goes for cristine reyes, cha. her makeup and clothes are appropriate. since, she was dressed down, her sensuality didn't overshadow the movie.

acting wise, give these two three or four more movies of this type and they'll really do well. i disagree with critics who say that cristine's acting was overwhelmed by anne. i say she did well and at this point, i can't think of anyone who can match what she did. she fits the role well except for the part when she's crocheting. as for anne, she has had better exposure in the movies and in real life so she delivered. she's not exactly just a pretty face, she's a thinking and intelligent pretty face so that oozes out of her character as well. in one scene, prior to responding to ram's saying goodbye, her neck muscles moved. then, her tears came out of the right area of the eyes. (in most movies, tears come from the middle of the eyes. come on. real tears gather at the inner end of the eyes and fall down-like what anne curtis did)

critics have also minded carmi martin's face. they said she had botox allegedly done. nothing's wrong if that were true. her character called for it. however, i think production should have done something better for the character of her husband, played by john arcilla. years ago and a few pound less, he can match derek. his clothes, except for the party scene, were too shabby for the new moneyed. i wanted to see the real brands, not the sponsors' logo alone.





now, here are the low downs.

1. in the dinner scene when ram introduces cha to his boss, the dialogue went:
ram: i'd like you to meet my wife, sir.
boss: you are?
that was impolite. the correct response should have been: "i've hear much about you or glad to meet you."

2. ram is seen waiting at the lobby. the owner of the resort who is the father of kara, sees him.
mr. z: you've got a lot of nerve coming here. matagal ko ng alam....

why on earth is ram there after the scandal at the resort? unless, it shows how mucha loser he really was, that scene was just there so the other actor can have a moment.

the key to this scene was the dialogue:

mr.z: if you stop hating your father so much, you can become a better man.

3. alas, the viewers are never given a scene that showed that ram had reconciled with his father, played by ultimate crush, johnny revilla.

4. that baby in the final scene was dark-skinned that matched the sun-burnt skin of ram. half the audience at the cinema where i watched laughed at this scene.

i think the ending would have been if ram's father were also in that final scene. it's a good movie. the mistress-wife relationship will stay and can change if only marriage were taken seriously.