No doubt about it: Dingdong Dantes and Marianne Rivera are filmdom’s power couple

Dingdong Dantes and Marianne Rivera in ‘Rewind’

It’s safe to say that Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera are the couple of the year.

The fact that two of their movies were official entries in last year’s Metro Manila Film Festival was already a major feat.  It shows how smart they are in selecting scripts and movie projects.  One, Firefly, was voted the festival’s Best Picture. The other, Rewind, was reportedly the highest grossing movie not only at the festival, but also, the country’s top grosser of all time! That proves the Dantes/Rivera tandem has what it takes to make successful movies.  Competing senior and juvenile love teams were left eating their dust.

I somewhat regret having skipped the festival. Social media had been raving about the entries to the point that I almost believed them.  Watching all the films would have been too costly.  My budget allocation for movies had been diverted to trips out of the city. Also, the price of one movie ticket was equivalent to the cost of two shirts in the Christmas tiangge. I’d rather splurge on the shirts.

Count on Netflix to save the day. It’s now streaming Rewind, and everyone is again talking about the movie. Having finally seen it last Holy Wednesday on a beach that was noisier than Quiapo on a Friday, I learned why the movie has been a hot topic on social media. It’s a glossy movie headlined by a beautiful real-life married couple. Fluid direction and polished editing by Mae Cruz-Alviar and Marya Ignacio, respectively, help lull us into believing everything the movie throws at us.

The movie is so pretty to look at. It’s like a layout on film for an upscale lifestyle magazine.  But that’s not to say this paradise is untroubled.  Dingdong Dantes is John, the head of the stylish household. He’s too obsessed with his career, so focused on getting a promotion, which he fails to get.  Wife Mary (Rivera) does her best to please her man. She hopes to embark on her own career, which she has put on hold to raise her family. Their little son, Austin (played splendidly by Jordan Lim), thinks his dad is disappointed in him because he sucks at sports and he’d rather study piano (sort of like a reverse take on The Prince of Tides). Austin also has a creepy habit of conversing with his stuffed toy, which seems to know everything that’s happening to the family.

Their lives unravel when John and Mary get into a violent argument in the car. Lies and deceits are uncovered, and a road mishap occurs. John loses his wife. Devastated and guilt-ridden, he starts getting drunk and blames God for his misfortunes. Well, God in the person of the school electrician (Pepe Herrera) appears and offers him a deal. He gives John a chance to do it all over again. But somebody still has to die in place of Mary, and it would have to be John himself.

The movie is so pretty to look at. It’s like a layout on film for an upscale lifestyle magazine.  But that’s not to say this paradise is untroubled

It’s an incredible premise, but the acting makes it look real. The dialogue by screenwriter Enrico Santos  is so natural, the actors seem to have been inspired to play it that way, as well. They also make a few of the clichés sound fresh. The long talking scenes are never boring because they keep the audience listening and engaged. The first encounter with the plumber is especially intriguing and amusing.

 The movie, however, is not flawless. Certain scenes should have been edited—spoilers ahead. The filmmakers should have just cut Mary’s wailing-over-her-dead-husband scene. It’s obviously written to showcase Rivera’s dramatic skills. I would have thought that a director the calibre of Mae Cruz-Alviar would be above such a stereotypical scene. I would have been happy with the clichéd overhead shot of people running to the lifeless body in slow motion (no sound, just the appropriate music), which then moves on to the funeral scene. This would have made us more forgiving of Mary’s lengthy eulogy.

The plot is actually unoriginal. It was inspired by the little-seen romantic comedy, If Only, which starred Jennifer Love Hewitt. While the premise could be the same, Santos infused many of his own ingredients to differentiate it from the original. The one major character the British film lacked that the Pinoy film had was God.

However, Rewind has its share of plot loopholes. The mystery of the clairvoyant stuffed toy remained just that, a complete mystery. It’s also never explained why John’s executive assistant keeps spying on him.  It’s also never established if the family is very religious.  God just suddenly enters the picture.  The movie is meant to be inspiring, but I don’t think it can bring anyone closer to God. George Burns and Morgan Freeman played God in Oh God! and Bruce Almighty, respectively. In those two movies, God offered His wisdom and assurance, not expensive deals.

John’s way of speaking to God is also strange. It’s as if he was negotiating with the Godfather, who was offering him a deal he couldn’t refuse. There’s a lack of reverence and a fear of God.  Ariel Ureta plays John’s boss and as written, he had the characteristics of what God should have been like when he appeared to John.

But if there is something to be learned from Rewind, it’s the fact that Mr. and Mrs.  Dingdong Dantes are the current power couple. Through sheer charisma, they’ve made this imperfect movie seem like a perennial holiday movie in the vein of The Sound of Music.