SEX-DRAMA GENRE IS BACK WITH "JUST A STRANGER" (Review)

After 5 box-office flops in a row, Viva Films hit it right this time with its latest offering “Just a Stranger”  grossing over Php 12M on its opening day.  I  watched the movie yesterday at Mega Mall, and the 6:45 pm screening in Cinema 2 was well attended with more than half of the seats occupied and it was also shown in another theater in the same mall.

The May-December affair of Mae (Anne Curtis) and Jekjek (Marco Gumabao) may be a cliché but it's treated with a different narrative twist and is interesting enough plus the fact that it stars Anne Curtis, one of the best actresses of her generation and of course the new sex symbol in town Marco Gumabao.  Apparently it was Marco himself who suggested to the director to show his butt onscreen.  

The film starts with Mae confessing to a priest about her dark past and that she had an affair with a young man twice her age).  Mae is married to a rich businessman (played by Edu Manzano) who's more focused with his business interests and leaves Mae bored.  The middle part of the movie is a bit "slow paced," in contrast to its catchy trailer and aggressive promotional gimmick, capitalizing the steamy hot love scenes of the two lead stars.  The movie came up with a good start showing scenes shot in Lisbon, Portugal (where the two protagonists first met) but things gets a bit slow and dragging during the middle part of the story that stretched nearly 2 hours of screen time.

Nagkabuhay buhay na lang when Anne started going crazy, got drunk in the bar and confronted Jekjek who prefered to hide their relationship from his parents and his girlfriend. Karamihan ng mga nanood ay mga galing sa work, some came in groups at ang dami rin mga kalalakihan for obvious reasons.  Excited sila manood pero parang kulang ng energy specially sa kalagitnaan.  Even the scene wherein Marco was beaten by 3  gangsters walang kabuhay buhay. 

Marco Gumabao  has all the potentials of becoming the next important leading man however he needs to work on his voice to add depth in his acting.  The sexy love scenes are provocative enough to stir moviegoer's interest and there' a lot of "F" words and swearing in the movie, thus it merited a R-16 rating by MRTCB. If I am not mistaken there has not been sex-drama movies for quite sometime now.  Things could have been dynamic without the minor flaws and  inappropriate musical score, however the soundtrack played at the end of the movie paid off and adds flair and angst to the movie. 

Anne Curtis  did a monologue towards the end of the movie, freaking out, blaming Jekjek’s parents and swearing right inside the church that stunned the priest and Jekjek's relatives  The movie ends with quite a cinematic scene with Mae (Anne) slowly walking out of the church being followed by Jekjek’s girlfriend asking Mae's identity.  Mae simply replied "I am just a stranger."  On this note, it is safe to say that Anne’s stellar performance saves the movie.