Love story takes circuitous detours

TRILLO AND SALVADOR. Portray star-crossed lovers.

Not even a quick roll in the hay makes Ellise Manalang (Maja Salvador) and Jojo Ledesma (Dennis Trillo) realize that they’re meant for each other—after all, which other “casual” friends could turn Manila’s flash floods as a convenient excuse to check into a motel?

Sparks fly every time their paths cross—but, the brilliant but cash-strapped Ellise wants to become a lawyer first before taking Jojo’s flirtatious advances seriously.

As with most cinematic fairy tales, it takes forever for the star-crossed lovebirds of director Chris Martinez’s “You’re Still The One” to head happily into the sunset.

The circuitous detours of Jojo and Ellise’s love story are made more dramatic by the former’s accidental liaison with Racquel (the miscast Ellen Adarna, who’s stunning but hollow), the self-effacing caregiver of his blind, diabetic mother, Cecilia (Zsa Zsa Padilla, underutilized as the sexiest blind character you’ll see in a local movie). With baby on the way, Jojo is forced to take an alternative bride to the altar!

From bliss to blisters

When his loveless union turns wedded bliss into marital blisters, Jojo belatedly discovers Ellise’s secret affair with her arrogant colleague, Vincent (a particularly stodgy Richard Yap)—who happens to be married! With so many confounding distractions, does Jojo’s love for Ellise stand a chance?

Despite its formulaic predictability and sterile convolutions, the movie benefits from Martinez’s proficient yarn-spinning, even if this film is curiously devoid of the witty irreverence and frenetic energy that have made his previous productions consistently viewable.

Salvador is uneven: She’s affable as a stubborn, go-getting kolehiyala, but lacks the gravitas of the ferocious legal eagle she later becomes.

For his part, Trillo is more consistent—he wears his broken heart on his sleeve as we see his character’s romantic life unravel into confusing complexity—and he doesn’t disappoint.

The hardworking cast has enough charm to sell some of the film’s weaker sequences. You see them vigorously filling out a story that, while thematically appealing, lacks singular unforgettable moments that would set it apart from mainstream cinema’s overblown romantic dramas!