Thursday, November 4

Till My Heartaches End (Philippines, 2010)

Dour, desperate, and painful to watch in some parts, Till My Heartaches End is Star Cinema's Halloween offering to Kimeralds: a 2-hour humorless drama about a relationship going through the motions of a breakup. And I loved it.

Film imitates the gossip headlines that have infested the grapevine for months, and if one were to read between the sobs during the movie's press conference, then this is the goodbye, the long last look of a couple that most of us watched grow up on national TV.

Jose Javier Reyes's bare, if sometimes lazy, direction fits the lifeless narrative. It's as if he is hesitant to tell the story of a man who wants more out of life and a woman who is content to stay quietly still. Kim Chiu's Agnes is fragile and neurotic; her slight frame trembles with every troubled tic, while Gerald Anderson is every bit the dashing lead whose looks equal his ambition. I sometimes wince at their sweetness in the various teleserye that they have starred in, but there's none of that here. Till My Heartaches End is a quiet, slow dissection. The excruciating repetition of arguments makes the impending crumble gloomier. Sadder. And as a fan of status quos, I felt for Agnes. (I'll understand if you un-Friend me from your Facebook.) The non-commercial end to such a commercial couple's movie could possibly be Star Cinema's bravest move this year.

There's no fast-forward button to a relationship whether it's beginning or ending. And Till My Heartaches End wallows in the uncertainty that keeps us up at night. Excuse me while I sob in the corner. 3/5

2 comments:

Oggs Cruz said...

You make me want to reconsider this. It's just really painful to watch, Thor. And that kiss in the forehead in the end threw me off. It leans more to wishy-washy happy ending than open-endedness. It took away the delicious bitter in the bittersweet.

Thor Bee said...

Hi, Oggs! The film could've seriously done without the three-years-after bit, which is purely fan service, I think. Ang ganda sana na yung kiss sa poster wala sa actual eksena or vice versa. The poster preempted the effect of the it-was-good-while-it-lasted kiss in the end.