Apo tunes drive rousing, heart-warming screen musical
DOS SANTOS AND CONCEPCION. Portray star-crossed lovers.
At long last, heto nApo ang “I Do Bidoo Bidoo,” the Filipino screen musical we’ve been wanting to watch. It isn’t perfect, but the season’s must-see film is rousing, heart-warming, entertaining and celebratory—a Pinoy production worthy of our music-making and music-loving people.
Steered by writer-director Chris Martinez, the movie judiciously incorporates 18 of Apo Hiking Society’s OPM classics into the long-winding romance of star-crossed teenage lovers, Rock Polotan (Sam Concepcion) and Tracy Fuentebella (Tippy Dos Santos), who are thrust into early parenthood when their youthful indiscretion takes root—she’s pregnant, and the only way to avoid further embarrassment is to get married!
Rock and Tracy’s trip to the altar becomes contentious, however, when they realize just how different their families are: Tracy’s parents, Nick and Elaine (Gary Valenciano and Zsa Zsa Padilla), are rich and influential, but their inability to communicate without snapping at each other is taking a toll on their marriage.
Feeling the pinch
The situation proves more burdensome for Rock’s parents, Pol and Rosie (Ogie Alcasid and Eugene Domingo), who are feeling the pinch of the upcoming nuptials. As it is, they’re barely making ends meet.
As a composer, one-hit-wonder Pol earns his keep by offering guitar lessons to his neighbors’ kids, while Rosie is an enterprising funeral caterer who constantly barks and blusters about her hard life and pent-up frustrations.
Things take a turn for the worse when the first-time meeting of the Polotans and the Fuentebellas leads to an exchange of insults that quickly degenerates into an ugly scuffle. —The wedding’s off! Will Rock and Tracy allow their differences to make their estrangement permanent?
More interestingly, now that Rock is off the hook, is it the best time for the closeted Brent (the winsome Neil Coleta)—who’s secretly in love with him—to reveal his true feelings for his best friend? (Coleta fulfills the promise he displayed in Jeorge Agcaoili’s “Oh Pa Ra Sa Ta U Wa Yeah” segment of Nestle’s “Kasambuhay, Habambuhay” short film anthology last year.)
Last year, Martinez also “flirted” with the Romeo-and-Juliet conceit via “Cooking Mo, Cooking Ko,” starring Dominic Roco and Eda Nolan, inventively employing poetry and the Balagtasan to tell his story. This time, he pulls off the complex juggling act of telling a concise narrative and allowing the inherent theatricality of the musical genre to help spin his heart-warming yarn.
The film tackles a number of relevant themes—teenage pregnancy, class wars, homosexuality, etc.—without sinking into easy, convenient clichés and contrivances. Even more diverting are the performances turned in by its gifted cast, led by Alcasid.
Chemistry
The divine Zsa Zsa aces both her dramatic and musical scenes—and, while compromised by her less-than-stellar singing voice, the earnest Eugene has enough spunk, charm and timing to “sell” even the silliest of scenes, musical or otherwise. The comedienne’s “unsettling” chemistry with Ogie holds the film in perfect stasis between situational comedy and the sad reality of how it is to live poor in the Philippines. (However, some other singer-performers tend to “posture” when they get carried away by the drama of their song.)
Dos Santos’ refreshing presence complements the emerging grit of Concepcion, who finally comes into his own as a compleat performer in a genre that shows his triple-threat skills in a flattering light. (At this year’s PhilPop, his crowd-pleasing rendition of “Kontrabida” was one of the songwriting tilt’s highlights.)
At the Resorts World preview last week, some portions of production numbers sounded muffled (a no-no for musicals), and the resolution of the film’s conflict felt too rushed to be truly empathetic. But, your quibbles fly out the window when cast members start singing Apo’s enduring songs in the context of the story. And, when the well-loved trio that immortalized them finally makes a cameo appearance, you’ll forget them altogether!
