Recent TV-film portrayals–hits and misses

VINA Morales fails to rise above role’s clichés. Richard A. Reyes

A number of relatively new performers are featured in the film, “The Love Affair,” boosting their “visibility factor” and providing an early showcase for their emerging thespic gifts. How successfully have they turned the opportunity to their advantage?

The most effective new player is Victor Silayan, a “buff” young actor who turns out to be a scion of the late, great Vic Silayan. Victor isn’t given a major “moment” to really display and unleash his acting “chops,” but he more than passes muster as Richard Gomez’s character’s lawyer and sports buddy.

At first, Victor’s buffed-up bod gets in the way of his dramatic portrayal, but we realize that “the role calls for it,” so we take it in stride. On point of dramatics, the young actor knows what he’s doing and where his character is coming from, so we trust that producers will offer him bigger and more challenging roles from here on, so he can really strut his stuff.

Another new and even younger actor, Grae Fernandez, is also assigned a good role in the film, as Richard and Dawn Zulueta’s youngest son. He’s given an intense, accusatory “moment” that has his character lashing away at his parents for making their once-happy family miserable with their marital infidelity. But his performance stops short of being fully focused and committed, and this isn’t as emotionally convincing as it could be.

However, the son of Mark Anthony Fernandez, a good actor in his day, should do better in subsequent roles, as he gains in confidence and focus.

For her part, as his sibling, Jane Oineza is given a brief but quietly intense scene in which she plaintively tries to “conscienticize” Bea Alonzo to leave Richard.

But the confrontation is too artificially set up, and Jane’s “attack” or emotional approach is too soft and tentative, so it doesn’t achieve its purpose of showing what a promising actress she is. In fact, she registers more clearly in her current TV soap, “Nasaan Ka Nang Kailangan Kita?”

Shifting our attention now to that TV series, one of its notable strengths is the performance being turned in by Christian Vasquez as Jane’s similarly beleaguered dad.

With his quietly intense and believable portrayal, he’s able to make viewers understand and empathize with his “faithless” character, Leandro. And that’s saying a lot, because Leandro, as written, is as stereotypically “generic” as they come.

Eternal youth

Unfortunately, Vina Morales hasn’t had as much success in rising above her role’s clichés in the drama series, where she plays Christian’s long-suffering wife. For one thing, Vina as her character, Cecilia, appears to be blessed with “eternal” youth—currently, she’s already a grandmother, but she still looks absolutely gorgeous.

In addition, her character has surmounted too many emotional and financial travails to be believed—a scripting flaw, but exacerbated by the actress’ nonchalantly “triumphant” portrayal.

Aside from Christian, the star who does best in the (now-extended) soap is Denise Laurel, who’s cast as the younger and richer woman who steals Christian and breaks Vina’s heart.

It’s a kontrabida role, plain and simple, but Denise bothers to make it believable and understandable, despite the hoary, old conventions of the TV melodrama trade.

It’s also obvious that Denise now comes across as the most beautiful kontrabida on the local TV screen. Yes, she’s too young for her now “maturing” character, but the overall impact of her performance and screen presence makes that not as much of a bother and distraction than if other actresses were playing the part. Give her a non-villainous lead role next time, why don’t you?