Not quite there yet

JC Santos

Some newcomers have made their bid for stardom, and they and their fans want to know what their prospects for 2018 are.

In our view, JC Santos is one of those promising comers—but, all told, he isn’t quite there yet in terms of stellar “K.” What can he do to speed up the starmaking process?

JC started off on the right foot, because he got his start and thespic training in theater. The rigorous and focused preparation that acting onstage insists on has served him well in his TV-film stellar bid.

He got the right break in the TV series, “Till I Met You,” a few seasons ago. He played “only” the third leg in the show’s romantic plotting, but his exposure was good enough to get him noticed.

In the movies, he’s costarred with Bela Padilla in “100 Tula Para Kay Stella.” It was a lead role, but the character he was assigned to play was too cloyingly “sensitive” to be sufficiently dynamic and involving.

And, to make things worse, he was unintentionally upstaged by the edgier and more cuttingly creative portrayal turned in by Bela, whose career thus benefited more from topbilling the film.

Next, JC was cast in Vic Sotto’s Metro Manila Film Festival starrer, “Meant to Beh”—where he again came up short as Vic and Dawn Zulueta’s conflicted son.

JC tried to “ride” on the film’s comedic bandwagon, but his heart—or funnybone—wasn’t really in it, so the results were similarly “off” and “not enough.”

That’s why we hoped that “Mr. and Mrs. Cruz” would turn out to be a case of “third time’s the charm” for JC.

The fact that “Kita Kita” director, Sigrid Andrea Bernardo, helmed the movie was a plus for the film, sight unseen, because she’s shown in the “sleeper” hit, “Kita Kita,” that she can do a lot with very little.

JC could bolster his new film’s prospects for success by making sure to avoid the “confused and sensitive” cliché, which some of his directors appear to think is a natural for him.

It may well be, but it should be tapped into not more than once, because after that, it becomes a weak and wan “crutch.”

In addition, as far as viewers’ reactions and involvements go, it discourages accessibility and empathy, two essential requirements for cinematic effectivity and success.

As for JC’s partner Ryza Cenon, her possible limitations or inhibitions could be her relatively long absence from the acting scene—and her just having come from a kontrabida role on TV.

Let’s hope they’re both up to it, so the next time we write about them, we’ll be singing their praises—instead of regretting what could have been.