“Love You to the Stars and Back” begins to create its delicate atmosphere, right at the first few moments of the film. Rebellious daughter, Mika has been torn by her mother’s demise and by the fact that her father has found a new love. She decides to sneak away and go alien-hunting, convinced by her mother’s words: ‘nothing is impossible’ she went on a journey that will forever changed her life.
Believing that aliens actually exist, she embarks on an adventure to Mt. Milagros, hoping aliens would abduct her and bring her to their world where she thinks ‘pain’ will no longer be possible.
And then Macoy (Joshua Garcia) is introduced, his charming demeanor being immediately put on spotlight. He is off to an adventure too, and he is also trying to sneak away, except that he’s with his bike and he’s being aided by two loving siblings.
The connection between Mika and Caloy is made straight away at first meeting. It doesn’t necessarily strike serendipitous, but the humorous start feels oddly romantic. There is this modesty employed to keep every comic effort effective, and it works massively each time it is delivered.
The two then goes on a road trip, and like in every adventure, what happens on the trip, is more important than getting to the destination. And true enough, getting there involves seemingly endless banters, of senseless but hilarious discussions that go from human-eating carabaos (buffalo) to human-abducting aliens, and a funny encounter with chickens at risked of becoming ‘tinola’, in between.
But during the final moments of the trip, the film finally shreds its painful details. The shift gets seamlessly carried out, but the weight may be too heavy to actually carry; the need for extra roll of tissue, will ensue.
Joshua Garcia is brilliantly mind-blowing in this movie. His Caloy character is heartbreaking, and that is not just because the character has cancer; he delivers it in the most affectionate way possible. He is spontaneously capable in his dramatic sequences, and comes out incredibly expedient during his character’s emotional shifts.
He makes everybody giggle or laugh at his instinctive humor, but he rips hearts apart during his character’s painful emotional meltdowns, the most heartrending of which, a scene at the bridge where he seemingly bared almost every heartache that his character bears.
Julia Barretto is stunning, exuding here a lovely charisma that makes forging chemistry with Joshua Garcia, more possible. She finally makes believing that she is Claudine Barretto’s niece, a lot easier. She complements Garcia very well. And while her character does not require too much dramatic effort as Garcia’s does, she complies satisfyingly and actually comes out as a capable actress versatile enough to seamlessly navigate her character from one mood to another.
The chemistry she shares with Garcia makes her character possess an inescapable allure, allowing the ever-brewing intimacy between them become even more convincing. Their connection is further bolstered by Moira de la Torre’s haunting rendition of Moonstar 88’s classic, ‘Torete’, making their already electrifying presence even more palpable, their inevitable romance poignant and lovely at the same time.
It’s probably harder for Direk Antoinette Jadaone to handle her story with those inevitable distractions: some detours and side stories that may not have been too easy to integrate with the main narrative.
Her breakout hit “That Thing Called Tadhana” was less complex, hence less distracted from issues that make getting to resolution, difficult. “Love You to the Stars and Back” still contains fragments of genre tropes and does not seem to deny them, but in fact uses them on some key moments to highlight the frailty of the characters, making them grounded and more accessible to the audience.
Inevitably, a story of this intricacy stumbles upon rudimentary pitfalls common to the genre. There is a scene showing Caloy begging to meet his father that seems neglected and not completely tackled. While it serves as a precursor to what may be considered as the most emotional sequence of the film, it is left unresolved.
Nevertheless, these tiny ripples in Jadaone’s beautiful script can be too easy to overlook, as the film itself consistently works to compensate for what the narrative is lacking. Its most endearing asset: Joshua Garcia and his jaw-dropping artistic contrivances. The amount of talent that he has is just unbelievable, that if he gets a best actor award for this film (of course, he will), it won’t be at all surprising.
In the end, “Love You to the Stars and Back” makes believing the impossible, possible, and that’s funny given how many times Mika and Caloy, themselves, actually almost give up on it. It is also funny how huge the amount of whimsical moments the film had to take to make us almost never care about the tragedy hidden behind Mika and Caloy’s shared comic and intimate moments, that when it suddenly empties its emotional load, we get crippled inside.
“Love You to the Stars and Back” is playful, sentimental, and lovely. It’s undeniably Antoinette Jadaone’s best work, to date, the most compelling film of its genre since Rico Yan and Claudine Barretto’s “Got to Believe”.
5 – Excellent
4 – Very Good
3 – Good
2 – Tolerable
1 – Terrible
