Pagtatagpong di makakalimutan, pag-iibigang dimapapantayan, pag-asang di
bibitiwanhanggang…goes the tagline for Erik Matti's recent opus Sa Huling Paghihintay.
Erik (Bernard Palanca) meets Geri (Rica Peralejo) during a victory party on the beach.
Attraction later leads to lovemaking near the beach but the morrow finds Geri gone. They meet two years later in a campus in Manila and the old flame is reignited, only for
Erik to find out that Geri already has a boyfriend. Erik turns his frustration to Ruffa (Jacki Forster) and eventually sires a son with her. Erik and his 4-year-old son return
to the province where he discovers Geri on the eve of her wedding day. Still very much in love with each other, Erik convinces Geri to go with him. Is Erik's waiting finally
over?
Matti says Sa Huling Paghihintay is "my Romeo and Juliet without the double
suicide at the end." The cinematography is impressive, giving us a glimpse of the tranquil and idyllic life in the countryside; the underwater scenes are also good. But the
screenplay fails because the characterization is sketchy and the dialogue weak. This "syrupy romance" as Matti calls it does not make the viewer fall in love as he claims it
would. Inserting narrations of some older couples' love story is a good idea, but the implementation falls short of the design. These interruptions are irksome as they disrupt
the main story. Even the musical score is wanting.
The movie tries to present the values of honesty, parental care and concern, family life, the
sanctity of marriage, being realistic against being overly romantic working hard to fulfill one's dreams, etc. But one questions the kind of love presented here. Sa Huling
Paghihintay depicts the blossoming of young love not with the delicacy of innocence and inexperience but by unbridled sexual indulgence, even though the characters are
supposed novices. Love is equated with sex, which could lead immature viewers to conclude that one cannot have one without the other. Should sex ever be the gauge of true
love? How can you love someone you barely know? Does love give you license to abandon your family for your first flame? If love is reduced to this, then Sa Huling
Paghihintay is a film na dapat lang kalimutan, di mapapantayan ang kababawan kaya't huwag mo na lang pag-aksayahan.
(Date reviewed: March 30, 2001)
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