Review
By Colton Gomez | 01/04/25 | 12:11 A.M. Mountain Time
Drama | Rated TV-MA (Netflix) | 1 hr 40 min | "Love Child" Release Date: August 2, 2024
“Love Child” is a feel-good film that aims to bring awareness to Autism Spectrum Disorder and change how it’s acknowledged in the Philippines. This is a very personal film for director Jonathan Jurilla, who has an autistic child. What we get here is a fine film about the strength of a family’s love for each other.
Ayla (Jane Oineza) and Paolo (RK Bagatsing) are an unmarried couple in the Philippines who struggle to pay their bills amidst learning their son, Kali (John Tyrron Ramos), is autistic. He hasn’t yet spoken and can’t yet recognize his parents. They do what they can for money including editing videos, working a late-night remote job, and improvising a coffee shop out of their VW van. Their expenses pile up as they try to find suitable schooling and therapy options for Kali. The stress of finances and having to do it all themselves pressures the small family to break apart.
The performances by Oineza and Bagatsing conveyed the grounded emotions of a couple that felt real. They breathed such life into their performances that I could feel their characters had a life before the events of the movie and they will continue living after the movie. These are characters that are easy to root for. And even in their darkest moments, you understand where they’re coming from and forgive them later.
Not every actor was great in this film. Oineza and Bagatsing feel so far above the talent of the rest of the cast. Truthfully, that’s all you need for a film of this size. But it was amusing to listen to our talented actors perform with someone who felt like a casting director reading lines in an audition.
The film’s cinematography was a little rough around the edges but its center was great. Sometimes the light would feel too harsh and artificial. Sometimes the dolly track would shake or footsteps would shake the camera unintentionally. These aren’t huge issues by themselves but they were scattered enough around the film that I was slightly taken out of some scenes.
One great shot from the film comes from its climactic moment involving Kali. This was storytelling and camera work combined to deliver a deserved, emotional impact. The use of pulling focus from a hazy image to a face that becomes clear as day is such a nice and deserved moment for the audience and the characters. It’s richer when contextualized within the world of the story, but I encourage you to watch it for yourself.
The film felt corny at times but that was sort of baked into the screenplay as a valid rom-com running joke which was offset by non rom-com elements. They would wonder if they made mistakes in life. They chided themselves for believing in a cliché life, getting swept up in romance, and leaving the future to worry about later. The film didn’t use every rom-com cliché and side-stepped certain ones I was certain were going to show up. This was a fun inclusion and helped to paint a more colorful portrait of this family and who they wanted to be.
The score is light and fluffy. It’s the first thing that would come to mind when you think about light and fluffy music. It’s almost like a sketch comedy show using overly happy music to ham up the comedy later. It didn’t necessarily add to the dimensions of the characters.
“Love Child” mostly details themes of financial stress, strong family bonds, and how the infrastructure of society isn’t built for families with special-needs children. Its mark of accomplishment is that it knew what it wanted to be and achieved that. The form could be more polished but it was a good story and a good enough film.
_______________________________________________________________
Review by Colton Gomez
Colton Gomez earned his BA in Film Studies from Weber State University. He owns and operates ColtonGomez.com. Here, he covers new releases in theaters and on streaming. For short versions of his reviews, check out his LetterBoxd
_______________________________________________________________
Summary
コメント