One More Chance for John Lloyd and Bea

I have always been a fan of the John Lloyd-Bea love team. I think that on-screen, they exude a chemistry that no other love team from their generation of actors could pull-off. Their on-screen romance just seems so natural that it would be so easy to relate to, no matter how old you are. I admit that their movies have, for the most part, been able to evoke a tear or two from me after watching them. However, that's as far as I would go in so far as John Lloyd and Bea are concerned. I don't find them particularly at their best when they aren't acting together, or when they are paired with other yong actors. Their lack of command for the English language, i.e., diction and pronunciation, doesn't help either. And their looks...well, let's just say John Lloyd has a big nose and looks much older than his real age, while Bea looks like a barrio lass with bad teeth--features which would probably make them stand out as the prom king and queen of some third-tier university, but would make them the second-rate trying hard, copycats of the more sophisticated schools. Nevertheless, given these, I think the flaws of John Lloyd and Bea make them look more natural and believable as actors. After all, for the most part, all of us live in the real world, and in this real world, the boys and girls that we meet and fall in and out of love with have big noses and bad teeth. This, for me, is what makes the John Lloyd-Bea love team click. It is totally unpretentious and real.

It was therefore natural for me to take life and sneak out of my conference in Shangri-la Mactan just to catch the latest John Lloyd-Bea film, One More Chance [click on the title of this post to see the trailer of the film], at the Ayala Malls in Cebu. And it was worth it. For me, One More Chance was the best movie of the pair, to date. The roles they portrayed were more mature, and as such demanded more from them as thespians. Each line they said, and each tear they shed struck me, and the fact that I felt a surge of different emotions while following the vicissitudes of the lives of Popoy (John Lloyd's character) and Basha (Bea's character) is a testament of how well the movie was made, mainly because of the great script and depth by which both John Lloyd and Bea gave justice to their roles. It was just so real, as if a friend of mine had recently gone through the same thing that Popoy and Basha went through. The dialogue was just perfect--without all the cheesiness that characterized John Lloyd and Bea's previous movies. From the line, "[s]he loved me at my worst, you had me at my best...and you chose to break my heart," to "may dalawang linggo pa ako!", and "[i]t takes grown-ups to make a relationship work," every line was said at precisely the right moment and right circumstances. So it wasn't hard for the watcher to feel what the actor was feeling at that moment.

One More Chance explores the nuances of a break-up, the parties involved, their feelings, and how the break-up usually progresses and affects all the parties involved--the guilt of the party responsible for actually breaking-up, as well as the pain and resentment felt by the other party. Watching the movie, I've come to realize that there is something redeeming about break-ups. After all, break-ups redeem the parties involved from what may potentially be a miserable life. More than this, however, break-ups force the affected parties to search themselves, grow independent of each other, and in the end, realize whether they are really meant for one another. If they are, even if the parties have apparently moved on with their lives and have begun relationships with third parties, it is as likely as day, barring any unusual and insurmountable conditions, that they will end up longing for each other. This time around, however, the longing is not based on the vernacular, panghihinayang, or the thought of what could have been had they not broken up; rather, such longing would be based on the thought that the parties, who have presumably "completed" themselves during the period of introspection after the break-up, and have grown independent of each other during the said period, come to realize that there is still something missing. And that something, or someone, is the other party. This, for me is the true redemption that comes out of a break-up.

It takes grown-ups to make a relationship work. Amen to that.