Understanding the hurt and desolation of heartbreak

Liza Soberano (left) and Enrique Gil

Cathy Garcia-Molina’s “My Ex and Whys” is a “more mature” big-screen outing for its now young-adult leads, Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil. For some years now, they’ve honed their developing thespic skills in “for the fans” teen romps on TV and in the movies, with “kilig value” as their principal cause for being.

In their latest movie starrer, however, they explore the sadder, darker side of love, after a traumatic breakup. Is there love on the rebound, or is it like beating a dead horse?

The film optimistically cuts through the hate, anger and guilt, and says there is. To its credit, its journey back to healing and caring is realistically limned and “earned,” so viewers pay attention, because there are lessons to be learned that they could apply to their own love issues and crises.

Molina’s film connects with viewers even more with its very “now” and engaged storytelling, which extensively employs the new and social media that articulate and frame young and young-adult people’s thoughts and feelings today.

Liza’s character is a blogger, Enrique is a rocker, and the connected world they inhabit is fast and kinetic, as never before. Taking its cue from this, the film itself is admirably brisk in its storytelling, in favor of a more dynamic and organic progression on mixed “platforms” that older viewers have to huff and puff to catch up with.

In addition, the two lead players are given opportunities to stretch their emotive limits, selflessly enabling viewers to enter into and understand the hurt and desolation of heartbreak.

Occasional distractions include the excessively busy and even dizzy “context” provided by Liza and Enrique each being given a “Greek chorus” of relatives and BFFs, who clutter up and distend the storytelling. But, the movie generally remains viewable and focused despite these  “noisy” diversionary tactics.

On point of scripting, the major flaw is the “theoretical” doubt and conflict introduced toward the film’s end, to make its resolution and denouement more intensely melodramatic.

This happens when Liza and Enrique’s characters have finally found a way to at least become friends again—but are unable to rekindle their love, because Liza timorously theorizes that it’s “impossible” for a Filipino male to remain faithful for keeps—so, it’s only a matter of time before Enrique breaks her heart again.

This sends her into another round of mutually destructive tirades that eventually push him to leave her—until she belatedly and finally decides that she’s wrong.

This “add-on” complication makes the movie go through pretty much the same territory twice, which makes its actual ending feel anticlimactic.

But, “My Ex and Whys” is still a successful and effective film, because it makes its twin protagonists “earn” the happiness and renewed love they feel at film’s end.

Liza and Enrique also succeed in proving that they’re ready for even darker and more daunting thespic experiences and adventures—and now have the huge fan base to support their next moves, since their latest film has turned out to be the first local blockbuster of the new film season.