?In My Life?
D: Olivia Lamasan
S: Vilma Santos, Luis Manzano and John Lloyd Cruz

THERE?S GOOD reason why moviegoers should join the queue to watch Vilma Santos? much-delayed return to acting after a five-year break. In Olivia Lamasan?s ?In My Life,? the legendary actress gets a firm and confident grip on Shirley Templo, the film?s priggish fiftysomething librarian protagonist, who finds herself at a crossroad after she grudgingly agrees to visit her bachelor son, Mark Salvacion (Luis Manzano), in New York.

When she gets to the Big Apple, however, Shirley ends up spending more time with her son?s eager-beaver roommate, Noel Villanueva (John Lloyd Cruz), than with Mark himself.

Alternative lifestyle

Thereafter, the conservative mother is forced to come to grips with her emotionally distant son?s sexuality and alternative lifestyle ? Mark is gay, and Noel is his live-in lover! But, unlike how she deals with most of life?s inconveniences, the reality of Mark and Noel?s unconventional relationship isn?t something the beleaguered librarian can simply shush away.

More complications ensue when Shirley contemplates staying in America for good. She then takes on odd jobs she has a difficult time holding on to. Her relationships with her son and his lover spiral downward when she gets wind of Mark?s battle with cancer. And, battle after battle, she tirelessly fights on. But, just when she finally settles into her new lease on life, Shirley faces another hurdle. Will she ever find a silver lining in the midst of all the doom and gloom?

Lamasan?s glossy feature is significant because it incorporates relevant topicality with its genre?s inherent mush, and this allows the movie to go beyond vein-popping dramatic caterwauling. In fact, the arduous path Shirley treads is made more substantial by the divergent journeys taken by the people around her, all of them embracing the Filipino diaspora in their search for better lives:

Marriage of convenience

Noel yearns for a slice of the vaunted American dream by engaging in a marriage of convenience that would automatically legitimize his struggle in the Land of Milk and Honey, while Mark thrives in the cultural permissiveness and political correctness of the new world that respects his unconventional lifestyle.

Lamasan revives the quintessential Pinoy melodrama armed with a lofty dramatic vision and an outstanding lead actress whose conviction, commitment to craft and jaw-dropping dramatic facility consolidate the production?s elements ? even its faults, not the least of which are its product placements. However, the production?s lively, briskly-paced first half, which introduces the winsome Shirley, soon devolves into a heady overload of I?ll-slap-you, you-slap-me-back mush, tempered only by the finely tuned performances of its leads.

Too good to be true

Luis passes muster by shaking off much of his stiffness, which he incorporates effectively into his characterization. John Lloyd matches Vilma?s depth and conviction, but while viewers instantly relate to the fully realized Shirley ? warts, dreadlocks and all ? John Lloyd is hobbled by a bland character that is simply too good to be true, which is probably why it takes a life(time) for Mark?s suspicious mother to warm up to Noel.

The egoless Vilma ? who plays a doting grandmother (!) in the film ? is a thespic force of nature. Would that all lolas could be as fabulously adorable. She takes full advantage of the physical acting style she?s known for and manages to rein in the comic excesses specified by the script?s occasionally overzealous sense of humor. The movie demonstrates that the actress is as comfortable in comedy as she is in drama.

It?s instructive for actors to watch and learn as Vilma shines in many Meryl Streep moments ? those seamless comic-dramatic shifts, Shirley?s subtle flirtation with an aging admirer, her frightening time inside a freezer, her cathartic confrontations with Noel, Mark and her other kids, and the silly but riotously funny Vilma-in-dreadlocks sequence. ? This is truly an acting showcase like no other. It looks like the Star for All Seasons has a shot at another grand-slam harvest next year.