Stringent thespic mentorship pays off

BERNARDO AND PADILLA. From giddy teen faves to focused “young adult” thespians.

Olivia Lamasan set up a challenging task for herself with her latest film, “Barcelona—A Love Untold”: to decisively “elevate” the popular love team of Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo, from giddy teen faves to focused “young adult” thespians.

The film has other goals that are achieved with varying degrees of success, but on this key objective of thespic growth, “Barcelona” is effective—especially in Daniel’s case.

Under Lamasan’s demanding mentorship, he visibly sheds many of his ingratiating tricks and ploys of yore, and digs deep into his character.

He comes up with a painful portrait of a young man who works himself to the bone overseas to get over the sudden death of his fiance, but is unable to do so until he meets Kathryn’s character.

What makes her compellingly attractive to him is the fact that she looks a lot like his greatest love. But, the similarity is deceptive, because “Mia” turns out to be practically the exact opposite of the late and still fiercely beloved “Celine.”

But, there’s more: Aside from “un-loving” Celine so he can love Mia, he has to love himself, and to forgive his mother (Maria Isabel Lopez) for abandoning him years ago.

 Career best

The result is an exceptionally honest portrayal that isn’t just the actor’s career best, but also reveals Padilla’s emerging thespic versatility, as he’s made to go from blithe banter to deep despair from scene to scene.

Kathryn also does well in her role, but less strikingly so, because she’s limited for a long time by her character’s weak and flighty persona.

She’s gone abroad to also run away from her own problems, but she’s unable to cope, as Daniel’s character does, because she keeps blaming everybody else but herself for them.

Only after he forces her to finally acknowledge her inherent weaknesses does she discover the strengths she does have or can develop. —But, by that time, her whining and finger-pointing have already eroded her character in viewers’ piqued perception.

We look forward to their next costarrer, which we hope will be a purposely “small” film, to give them an opportunity to consolidate their thespic gains—without the occasionally limiting and distracting factors involved in making “Barcelona” a hit.

Some of those factors ended up working against and even contradicting the film leads’ thespic gains, so a small follow-up movie is needed for Daniel and Kathryn to risk even more and really go for the jugular—as now certifiedly insightful young-adult performers.