Aga rekindles ‘fire in the belly’

MUHLACH (RIGHT, WITH LOCSIN). Self-effacing honesty.

Now that Aga Muhlach’s latest starrer, “In the Name of Love,” has effectively and even definitively reestablished him as the best dramatic actor on the local film scene, some movie buffs have been trying to figure out what gives him the edge over other and younger male leads like Piolo Pascual, John Lloyd Cruz and Coco Martin. I hope these comparative notes are of some help:

First off, what makes Aga’s portrayal in his latest movie exceptional is the new commitment and “go-for-broke” attack that he brings to it. For far too long, he’s been the top male dramatic lead around, but often too safely and even smugly so.

As a result, his recent performances have tended to be rather predictable—a real pity, since Aga has shown in some of his early portrayals that he’s got it in him to be an exceptional actor in films.

“In the Name of Love” is a landmark movie in his career, because he’s rekindled the “fire in the belly” to again come up with a memorable and dramatically insightful portrayal that used to make him more than just a pretty face in his youth.

True gift

It could be the fact that he’s already in his 40s and maturing both as a person and an artist that has “reminded” him of his true gift and “duty” as an actor.

Whatever the reason, he has clearly decided to focus, not on his on-screen image and signature charm, but on the character he’s playing, period.

Since the character is no spring chicken, Aga has “allowed” his age to show in certain scenes, and this “confessional” stance has added immeasurably to his performance’s truth, pathos and affecting vulnerability.

Since the character has all sorts of grave personal, psychological and ethical problems to contend with, Aga’s self-effacing honesty makes his daunting and even tragic conflicts viscerally real, and that much easier for viewers to understand, empathize with and learn from.

The big “test” of the actor’s resolve is the key and extended scene in which he finally reveals to Angel Locsin’s character how deeply hurt and angry he feels about what he perceives to be her emotional disloyalty and duplicity.

Challenging scene

As Aga launches into the emotionally challenging scene, we see him reach certain “landmark” points that, in his previously “safer” portrayals, he would have stopped at.

But, so rigorous is the revelatory path that he and director Olivia Lamasan have charted for themselves that, instead of stopping, he just keeps going.

One dark moment leads him to an even darker and more painful level, which then takes him lower still, until it’s the very soul of his tormented character that we are gazing at, and deeply feeling for.

Having bravely descended into the very pit of “hell,” where good looks and youth are quite frankly irrelevant and even distracting, Aga finally emerges at the other side of his character’s painful journey of confession and brutally honest self-revelation, triumphant and transformed.