Movie No. 9 (2015): ENGLISH ONLY, PLEASE

English Only, Please (2014)
Director: Dan Villegas
Cast: Jennylyn Mercado, Derek Ramsay, Cai Cortez
In Tagalog and English

A business analyst (Julian) from New York flies to the Philippines and hires an English tutor (Tere) to translate from English to Tagalog his upbraiding letter to his Filipina girlfriend who dumped him. Julian still stalks his ex-girlfriend, who now stays in Manila; Tere chases his ex-boyfriend, showers him with expensive gifts, although their relationship at present is reduced to just 'friends with benefits." And so Julian and Tere, as bond develops between them (it's slow, anyway), become familiar with each other - so comfortable that their terms of endearment for each other are Tanga One and Tanga Two. Of course, like in most romance comedy, happy ending is expected.

There is really no original innovation in story-telling in this movie. It adopts a rare style that have worked for a few movies; it does work well, too, in this movie. The formulaic mainstream touch and instances of melodrama almost take a toll and cancel the movie's interesting premise and commendable performances of Jennylyn Mercado, who's very much her character, Tere, and of Derek Ramsay as Julian. The movie is about these 'foolish hearts' as it is also about words or word play. The inter-text graphics are a welcome ingredient to make this movie even more enjoyable.

Rating: 3.0/4.0

Date seen: January 8, 2015


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