A high spirited, gloomy romance where illusion undermines reality, Cathy Garcia Molina’s ‘My Perfect You’ dwells in a beautiful world that feels implausible and real at the same time.
It’s your standard, overly formulaic romantic comedy, that anchors upon the electrifying chemistry of its leads to deliver a sweet, and fairly moving story.
The film brings together, Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach and Gerald Anderson, in a haunting tale of loss and second chances, and all the beautiful and painful realities that come with them.
In the film, Burn Toledo (Gerald Anderson) is a graphic artist who gets dumped by her girlfriend on the very same day he means to propose to her. Devastated, he embarks on a dangerous trip to a faraway place.
The heartbreak brings him to the Happy Sunshine Camp, where the quirky and bubbly, Abi (Pia Wurtzbach), is anyone every occasion asks her to be. She’s an owner, a manager, bellgirl, cook etc.– practically everything, in one body. Annoyed at first, Burn eventually falls for Abi’s earnestness and humor, that when she claims ‘I can be anything you want me to be’, he believes her.
But there’s a big catch to that statement, and it is where the narrative’s biggest deceit is wrapped around.
Such parabolic fraud may remind of the Piolo Pascual and Toni Gonzaga-starrer, ‘Last Night’, where the reveal felt contrived and forced. In ‘My Perfect You’, the pretense is exposed in a seamless fashion that the proceedings leading to the unveil go in a sweeping manner that takes the audience by storm.
Arguably, that big plot twist is predictable–it wouldn’t be hard to guess something like it would eventually arrive. But it is the intensity and emotional weight of that moment that makes it impossible to be prepared for. And once it hits, those who witness it would surely fall into an awestruck silence.
Gerald Anderson owns a commendable restraint to pull off the nuances of his character, beautifully, that even Burn’s emotional layers are mostly confined within the broody range of loss and grief, he is still able to deliver them at distinctly varying levels and intensities. Anderson bears a manly elegance that makes even his moments of defeat and breakdown, something to swoon for.
Pia Wurtzbach, is surprisingly charming. She is a natural charmer whose beauty and humor makes Abi easy to fall in love with. She delivers a compelling performance in an emotional confrontation with Gerald, exposing her dramatic facet that proves she is more than just a face. And she is more than the face, for in the film, she carries the comic effort and makes its most painful moments, singularly genuine and heartfelt.
But together with Gerald, she forges an unbelievable connection, that every single moment they are put together in one frame, they conjure magic.
The exquisite photography makes another salient character that turns the movie into more than just an exhibit of loss and heartbreak. Glossy and lush colors invite the audience to immerse into the fantasy world it seemingly creates, and while we all know its a cover up to a stirring storm inside that will surely rend hearts apart, we still plunge into it.
Though implausible at times, ‘My Perfect You’ renders a sense of reality that will move spectators to tears. There is a tendency to be a bit clumsy and the proceedings tend to get devoured by its own emotional immensity, but it is not as if romantics would care, anyway.
Charming, heartwarming, and heartbreaking, ‘My Perfect You’ is a gripping tale about second chances at love and life, and the choices we make to deserve them.
RATING: 3.5/5
5 – Excellent
4 – Very Good
3 – Good
2 – Tolerable
1 – Terrible
‘My Perfect You’ is now showing in cinemas, nationwide.
