Putting together the brilliance of Nuel Naval and Mel Mendoza-del Rosario in Family of Two (A Mother and Son Story), is synonymous with a box-office hit. They proved this in 2019 when their tandem via the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) entry–Miracle in Cell No. 7, topped the box office with ₱426 million returns, beating Vice Ganda‘s The Mall, The Merrier with ₱323 million.
Family of Two (A Mother and Son Story), which stars the Megastar Sharon Cuneta and Asia’s Multimedia Star Alden Richards–is the seventh film that Naval and Mendoza-del Rosario have worked with since their first collaboration via A Secret Affair in 2012. After their successful tandem in last year’s entry to the MMFF–Family Matters, they are back in another heartwarming family-oriented film. Without a star-studded cast, the story is enough to hook the moviegoers due to the relatability of Cuneta and Richards’ characters as Maricar and Matty, respectively.
Judging from its trailer, most people see the story between a mother and a son as plain and simple. Little did they know, there were internal conflicts between the two leads. That’s the brilliance of del Rosario’s storytelling. No matter how the rest of the world may perceive the lives of Maricar and Matty as blissful as they may seem–beneath it, something is lacking.
Cuneta is a single mom with a son who is starting to explore the world on his own when he starts to work and provide for their family of two. No matter how the saying would try to stress that a mother is a son’s first true love–there comes a time in a son’s life when he has to pursue his dreams and the woman for him. In parenting, which the film of Naval is all about, it speaks about what it takes to raise a child: love and the courage to let go.
Yes, there is truth in the two lasting things–parents can give to their children: roots and wings.
Another thing moviegoers would get hooked with the mother-and-son story–is their respective struggles. The moviegoers may tend to resonate with Matty’s struggles to boost his confidence in expressing his feelings toward his love interest, portrayed by Miles Occampo as Zari and Maricar, as she had to go through the dynamics of finding purpose in life apart from taking care of her only son, Matty.
Family of Two (A Mother and Son Story), is not the typical tear-jerker film back in the late ’80s and ’90s. It’s not the Tanging Yaman or the Anak films (both box-office hits and heavy dramas starring Gloria Romero and Vilma Santos, respectively). There’s no sense of comparison. It’s beautiful in its simple storytelling.
It is a simple story like Maricar’s plant, which she’s fond of plating, uprooting, and transferring to another plot or soil. That’s how the screenwriter succeeded in showing what a real-and-honest-to-goodness scenario of a typical mother-and-son setup. There’s no need to create bigger conflicts amongst all the characters, but inner conflicts between Maricar and Matty can still rock their ‘undisturbed worlds’ and remain relatable because of their universal issues.
Subtly, the writer painted a scenario of Maricar’s attitude toward her plants as a reflection of how she has been rearing her son–too obsessed with nurturing the object of her love and forgetting that she needs nurturing, too, in the process.
Naval shines through [once] again in bringing out the best in her two leads. His collaboration with the Megastar is not about showcasing what the former leading lady was known for during her heydays but allowing her to act as naturally as she can, as a mother, a vulnerable individual, particularly in that scene where silence was required when Zari tried to bid goodbye to her. Richards shows his acting chops without putting too much effort into making his audience cry. His Matty is like second nature to his real-life personality.
There’s no doubt that Cuneta solidified her spot for a best actress nomination or perhaps snatch the award for herself this year. Mendoza-del Rosario’s unpredictable writing of twists no matter how simple she chose it to be–is still ingenious.
The film’s thesis is to love unconditionally without overlooking one’s individuality.
