ALONE/TOGETHER : FIRST BLOCKBUSTER OF 2019

A total of 8 Filipino films have been released since the start of the year but unfortunately 7 of them (including "Bato: the Gen. Ronald de la Rosa Story," "Born Beautiful," and "Tol") are all box-office flops, however Black Sheep's  “Alone/Together” breaks that jinx.  The movie which is released by Star Cinema, reportedly grossed a whopping Php 61,901,086 in just two days and is expected to breach 100M mark this weekend.  Noted for her “heavy dialogue” films, Director Antoinette Jadaone continue her winning streaks at the box-office since she made her first romcom movie “That Thing Called Tadhana” back in 2014.

“Alone together” is a story of two university students who dreamed a life together and shared ideals during their college days; Christine (played by Liza Soberano) is a UP Art student while Raf (played by Enrique Gil) is a pre-med student at UST.  The film opens with Christine working as a part time tour guide at the National Museum lecturing high school students about Juan Luna’s masterpiece “Spoliarium” (often misspelled Spolarium).  Christine is an idealist and dreams of becoming a famous curator someday and as she put it, she wants to change the world while Raf dreamed of becoming a doctor.  

The two met again after they’ve broken up 5 years ago and reminisces their time together. Christine was involved in a scam (though not of her own doing) and it was her businessman boyfriend (Luis Alandy) who saved her out of the mess.  Raf is in a relationship with a fellow doctor (Jasmin Curtis).  Out of gratitude, Christine continued working for her workaholic boyfriend and when she was sent by her company to New York on a business trip, Raf followed and as the title says the two spent time alone together.  Both tried to iron out uncertainties of their relationship but they have come to terms and go on separate lives as they were already both committed.  Under circumstances,  Christine is faced with a gap between her personal life and her professional aspirations but in the end she opted to break up with her boyfriend in pursuit of her dreams. That being said, their relationship becomes even more complicated as Raf's girlfriend became pregnant and Raf would soon become a father.  But in the world of Filipino mainstream movie formula, expect the expected…the story is fast tracked to follow the local romcom format, that is, a happy ending and that's what is going to happen anyway after all the drama and pretensions(?) just to showcase "acting" moments of the lead stars.   

The film is rated “A” by Cinema Evaluation Board (or is it overrated?).  I find the first half of the film a bit slow-paced and somewhat less upbeat; some lines were quite wordy and very 80's, but nonetheless it still delivers a notable element that is seemingly different from the usual romcom we see from Star Cinema. The title "Alone/Together" is probably copied from an American comedy TV series "Alone Together" though both tackles different theme.  In another aspect, it’s pretty hard not to mention the two songs used in the movie’s soundtrack, which certainly set the mood specially towards the end of the movie.  I am referring JM de Guzman's version of “214,” a 2010 song popularized by Eraserheads.  It’s just as good as the original or maybe even better. The other song is “Kapit” by Armi Mallari of UP Dharma Down.  

"Alone/Together is arguably Liza Soberano’s film.  She just sparkle throughout the film and proves that she just doesn’t have that pretty face but she has the potential of becoming a good actress in the long run.