It doesn’t make clear sense that after their not-so-successful big screen team -up in last year’s “So it’s You”, Carla Abellana and Tom Rodriguez are back in yet another rom-com movie, and again, for Regal Films.
The title alone, “No Boyfriend Since Birth”, is ominously warranting a cliché story-line, and true enough, the film bears no commitment to shake-up the conventional set-up of its formula. And yet, that is not this Jose Javier-Reyes-helmed film’s biggest problem–it’s stricken by the same flaws that plagued the couple’s debut film: forced humor and romantic chemistry, and an uninspired script.
“No Boyfriend Since Birth” follows executive assistant, Karina Miranda (Carla Abellana). She has never been in a romantic relationship, so when her high-school crush, Carlo Mercado (Tom Rodriguez) returns in town, she decides to pursue him, desperately doing anything to make him shift his attention to her, and this, all because of a school fair prediction that told her she was to marry a guy having the same initials as Carlo’s.
For ten long years, she believed it was him, holding on for a belief he would eventually fall for her–a belief further strengthened by a fortune-teller’s affirmation.
The string of predictable proceedings is a dead-ringer for countless similar plots in previous rom-coms, most strikingly 2014’s “Starting Over Again”, where Toni Gonzaga’s character had to do business partnership with Piolo’s, so she could win him back. The desperation is as laughably eye-roll-worthy here, but Ginny’s struggle was far more palpable that even her ways were ridiculously desperate, she was able to get her heart-wrenching sentiments across.
In “No Boyfriend Since Birth”, Carla’s Carrie has the makings of another Ginny, or any hopeless romantic woman, who embodies the same aspirations and motivations, only here, Carla fails to deliver them. So often, the humor sounds forced and still falls flat, but free spirited and quirky persona, couldn’t be of any help. In the end, Carrie becomes just another character entrusted to an actress whose artistic mold couldn’t quite fit to its requirements.
That’s not to say Abellana is a terrible actress, but she just needs to stay away from this genre and focus on drama. “My Husband’s Lover”, her only hit TV series with Tom Rodriguez, was successful in letting her expose the dramatic facades of her artistry, I say why not master that further?
Same can be said with Tom Rodriguez’s Carlo which suffered the same fate as his last year’s Goryo, in the film, “So It’s You”. Not only the character is thinly-structured, but is also treated with Rodriguez’s monotonous delivery.
Surprisingly, these two, when put in one frame together, conjures up a palatable chemistry–never mind if it is forced–effective enough to establish romantic connection between their characters. As with the supports, there is barely any difference, even worse, they are given with two dimensional roles that even with the best of their capacity, may not be interesting enough to spice up the proceedings.
That being said, it is so hard to fully appreciate the film as a solid romantic-comedy. It is not really hard to believe to its commitment to the genre, but it is not easy, either, to see that it struggles to deliver them with all its forced comic efforts and often missing romantic chemistry.
RATING: 5/10 (JE)
