I attend the premiere night of the movie Para Sa Hopeless Romantic (PSHR) last May 12, 2015 and one of the privileged to see it first. It was a well attended premiere in terms of fans, and artists. Check out Wazzup.PH coverage from the grand presscon, and various blogcons.
Here is my review of the movie:
REVIEW
Book and Movie Version
I have not read the book so I won’t be doing a comparison between the movie and the book. Based on the presscon and blogcons I attended, and in my previous experience also with Star Cinema’s creative team, there is definitely some difference with the movie adaptation of the book to make it more suitable for the big screen.
During one of the blogcons, Marcelo Santos III, the writer of the book told us bloggers that even after just seeing a pre production version without the post production edits and soundtrack, he already like the movie version. After seeing the movie in the premiere based on the interviews I heard conducted, he was very pleased in Star Cinema’s creatives handling of the screenplay especially the additional scenes not in the book.
For the JulNigo Fans
It’s definitely eye candy and super “kilig” moments for JulNigo, Julia Barretto and Inigo Pascual fans. Individually, they looked great and “glamorous” on the silver screen. The way their scenes were shot and directed by Direk Andoy Rana will make every JulNigo watch it more than once.
Julia’s portrayal was very natural and she slide through her role with ease. Inigo Pascual, although a newbie among the cast, did quite well in his character portrayal as well. I think they had the easy part as well; the fantasy love story being written by the character of Nadine Lustre in her book.
I would rate it 4.5 stars out of 5 for the viewing pleasure of JulNigo fans!
For Jadine Fans
The scenes for Jadine James Reid’s and Nadine Lustre’s characters took a different approach. According to the creative mind of Direk Andoy Ranay, he mentioned to us in the previous blogcons about his treatments or aesthetics in filming the scenes of JulNigo and JaDine. This is to separate the “reality” of the “real” characters of James & Nadine versus the “fantasy” of the story of the JulNigo character that are just in the mind of the writer character of Nadine.
You can notice that the JulNigo scenes are glossy, colorful, and bright. This made Julia and Inigo looked great in the big screen. On the contrary, the scenes of Jadine were a bit dark in terms of lighting, less saturated, and James Reid told me during the after party that he had even to wear a tan make-up to make him look darker!
I definitely admire Direk Andoy’s artistic treatment on the 2 different universes. Yes, it was effective and easily understood. However, the side effect is that it diminished the “magic” and the glam of James and Nadine. Of course, if you are a Jadine fan, you would not care of a less glamorous look, James is James and Nadine is Nadine. Definitely the magic is still there, and there’s a lot, but it’s not like “Disney” magic if you know what I mean.
The kilig moments were there. The “tuyo” scene which everyone is looking forward to. And there’s more to enjoy because of the great story and screenplay.
JaDine with James and Nadine definitely has the chemistry that JaDine fans always love on cam or off cam. I find some of the love scenes especially when they looked each other needs a bit more improvement specially their stares and eye expressions. This movie PSHR I think is the most challenging in acting requirements compared to the other ones they did before. They had the harder bits.
So for the JaDine fans, I rate this movie a bit lower 3.25 stars out of 5. The treatment of Direk Andoy definitely did great for the movie but not much for the glam look I expected for JaDine. But I still highly recommend the movie for a JaDine fan because I think it one of their best roles elevating them slowly away from the teen romance genre into a more general love story for all ages genre that I think they have great potential for lesser Wattpad and more of a romantic pocketbook type of roles.
Overall Rating
I rate the movie 3.75 stars out of 5 stars and definitely recommend it not only for the Hopeless Romantics but even for those who are in love. JulNigo fans will walk out of the cinema with a smile as wide as the “distance from Monumento to Baclaran”. Jadine fans with a smile from “PUP to PhilCOA”. Overall its a great movie to enjoy! Highly recommended for the young and even for the young at hearth.
And lastly, I would like to commend the performance of Shy Carlos in her portrayal of her role. She is the new best “bestfriend”!
