Nora and Tirso, against all odds

GUY AND Pip, together again for a TV special. FACEBOOK PHOTO

Former teen faves Nora Aunor and Tirso Cruz III, better known as “Guy and Pip” to the senior citizens out there, have defied the odds and become sensitive and insightful performers in maturity. That’s why we eagerly looked forward to viewing their new TV5 TV movie, “When I Fall In Love,” last Feb. 11.

In the made-for-TV film directed by Joel Lamangan, the senior lead stars played a married couple whose decades-long union was being threatened by the latest in a series of crises, Tirso’s character’s terminal case of cancer.

Flashbacks informed viewers that the mature couple’s marriage was previously rocked by infidelity on Tirso’s part, which resulted in the birth of a love child, whose arrival prompted Nora to give up on their marriage—but, only for a short while.

The TV movie made a major thematic point about Nora’s character’s ability to cope with any and all crises because her love was that deep, encompassing and forgiving.

By no means did she intend this to give Tirso carte blanche to do his faithless worst, but it was the glue that kept their marriage together, against all odds.

A particularly instructive twist was provided by the revelation that Tirso’s love child was “adopted” by the couple after they had reconciled—another awesome act of forgiveness on Nora’s part, because she had to live with the “proof” of her husband’s infidelity staring her in the face each and every day!

Thus, “When I Fall In Love” cumulatively shapes up as a thematic tribute to all wives whose abiding and forgiving love keeps marriage and families together, sparing the children involved the additional onus of separation and divorce.

Melodramatic

As the “supreme sacrificer” in the story, Nora effectively communicates the pain and betrayal she feels without tearing up the scenery in a fit of excessive melodramatic display—which other and lesser actresses would probably have been tempted to resort to!

For his part, Tirso holds up his own end of the film’s central thespic equilibrium. Together, the production’s mature leads keep the storytelling’s core in firm focus.

In the final analysis, however, the TV movie falls short of ending up as a truly significant film due to some distractions provided by its subplots and subsidiary characters, some of whom were portrayed by less than exceptional performers.

We understand the production’s need to expand its scripting focus to include the couple’s children and their subconflicts. But this and the extended flashback scenes depicting Nora and Tirso’s characters as youths simply took up too much time and eventually eroded the mature characters’ central participation in the story’s key conflicts and confrontations.

More focused

Admittedly, it isn’t easy to “juggle” so many thematic and thespic balls in the air, but when “iconic” talents like Nora and Tirso are involved, it’s key that their thespic “predominance” should be valued above all else—particularly when lesser supporting actors tend to bring the production’s cumulative artistic energy down.

Thus, while we appreciate TV5’s effort to showcase Nora and Tirso’s mature thespic gifts by way of this TV movie, we hope that another, more firmly focused production be conceptualized, shot and shown later this year.