It’s so hard to shrug off “Para sa Hopeless Romantic’s” immediate charm, when its story is based on a bestselling book that is well-loved by almost every young audience, and it has four equally good-looking young stars as its lead actors.
Unfortunately, the movie’s best selling points don’t go past both its actors’ and resource material’s immense popularity, as it gets crushed under the weight of its drab and mediocre execution.
The movie follows Beca, a young writer, struggling to provide a happy ending for the story she began writing after her own love story suddenly ended. This gives way to two separate romantic universes presented through two parallel narratives. This idea is risky, to begin with, and its hard to imagine someone as notoriously mediocre as Andoy Ranay, would easily pull it.
I’m giving the movie a plus point for putting the two love stories different treatments in terms of lighting and glossiness, but I wouldn’t say this makes up for everything lost in the wake of its uninspired execution. The fantasy world where Beca’s imaginary love story takes place has more vivid and glossy colors, and I’d say that may be the reason why Julia and Iñigo exude better chemistry than the other pair: James and Nadine.
You wouldn’t blame the young audience if this will be enough to send them crippling to this sense called “kilig”. This is not how the story imparts them a relatable experience anymore. More to it is their admiration to the actors playing the roles, and the mere possibility that the same romance they do onscreen is happening in real life.
This is where the movie’s magic mostly emanates, and as much as I want to give credit to Ranay, his lack of narrative artistry is just too wrecking, to be acknowledged. It is easy to pin the blame on its overly familiar resource material, but it’s even harder to skip the fact that there isn’t any effort to improve it, for it to come out with a better output. Albeit already told so many times before, “Para sa Hopeless Romantic’s” tale has the capacity to move and inspire. It has something of sense from the get go, but all its potential is sent bent under the crushing weights of its makers’ lack of skill. The result barely excites and definitely isn’t one that satisfies.
“Para sa Hopeless Romantic” is a wasted opportunity to present something insightfully romantic. There’s a magic in the idea to begin with, but it dissipates in the presence of a more obvious flaw that includes uninspired storytelling and direction.
RATING: 5/10 (JE)
