Uneven exchange of wit and wits in MMFF pacesetter

OUR coverage of this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival’s offerings began with the frontrunner in terms of first-day income, “Enteng Ng Ina Mo”—which grossed P35 million, way ahead of the second placer, “Panday 2,” which made “only” P20 million. Why is “Enteng” so popular? —And, is it any good?

The answer to the first question: It’s the first stellar team-up of Vic Sotto and AiAi de las Alas, whose past “solo” starrers have topped some Metro festivals in the past. “Logically,” therefore, a movie starring both of them should do even better—that’s two for the price of one, right? Well, the logic of that proposition has been proven—with gusto.

What makes the Vic-AiAi pairing truly choice is the fact that they’re both comedians, so viewers can expect to be treated to many hopefully funny scenes in which they trade comedic zingers.

That’s exactly what they do in “Enteng,” in their respective styles. —Unfortunately, however, their comedic styles are wildly different from one another, so their scenes don’t come together in humorous harmony. In fact, not so humorous dissonance and even combativeness would be a more accurate way of putting it.

House on fire

Vic is famous for his laid-back, sly and relatively subtle way of making people laugh—while AiAi comes on like a house on fire and an elephant rampaging through a glass factory, breaking and smashing everything in its path. Put those dissonant styles together in a series of scenes, and the results are—not pretty.

It’s Vic who’s the better comedian by far in this uneven exchange of wit and wits. Instead of hitting a punchline or sight gag head-on, he insinuates himself into the comedic situation at hand—while AiAi shouts and screams in her off-puttingly hoarse voice, eyebrows wagging  up and down, nostrils flaring, teeth flashing and fingers flailing all over the place. The key words for her kind of comedy are loud, antic, frenetic and even manic energy. The whole shebang is so overwhelming that the stunned viewer sometimes—forgets to laugh.

It doesn’t help, too, that quite a number of the two leads’ scenes have them acting like teenagers in heat or in love. They’re much too old for kilig antics like those, even as a spoof, so the results are cringe-worthy.

Mistake

Sadly, even second lead comic, Eugene Domingo, fares badly in this “TH” enterprise. She makes the mistake of trying to match AiAi’s frenzy, and ends up with egg on her face, as well. “Energy” and “color” are fine comedic attributes, but done to death too exclusively and in sheer disregard of all other virtues of genuine screen humor, they’re major turn-offs—and Eugene should have known better than to hitch her performance on AiAi’s screaming and flailing star.

As for the rest of the movie, some fantasy touches and special-effects flourishes are visually diverting, but the messy mix of elements generally doesn’t come together well. So, why is “Enteng” topping the festival’s box office? Because times are tough and people need to laugh—and because Pinoys love halu-halo entertainment with everything in it (don’t forget the scoop of ice cream and the cherry on top of it)—which this movie provides, in huge, hearty and humongous heaps!