My niece and I were going to watch Crazy Rich Asians in the cinema when we discovered the time we planned to watch was already blocked off for a group of students. If we wanted to watch the movie we had to wait for three hours. We decided to watch another movie in the meantime, the Sarah Geronimo-starrer Miss Granny.
The movie is a localized version of a Korean film of the same name. The plot is the same, just made to match Filipino life. As I’m sure the official trailer of the film has already made obvious, it is about an old woman who is given a second chance at life by returning to her youth through the help of a magical photo studio. She renames herself Audrey and attempts to start a new life.
There were a lot of funny moments in the film, most of which comes from the fact that Sarah Geronimo, who plays Audrey, is an old woman in a young woman’s body. It becomes even more complicated when she ends up singing for the band of her grandson, who cannot understand why he feels close to her (which results in more awkward and funny moments).
I felt that the movie tried to do its best in the amount of time it has been given but there were still some parts that seemed to leave me hanging and wanting more. One was related to the character of Marissa Delgado, the old lady from the senior place who always seems to mock Fely (Miss Granny/Audrey). The relationship was not developed enough for me to understand why Audrey rushed to the hospital to see her when she found out that she had a stroke. The visit to the wake where Audrey cried I understood as she was probably thinking of her own mortality but the rush to the hospital was weird for me.
Another thing that I feel lacked any more development was the relationship that Audrey had (or, didn’t) with Lawrence (Xian Lim). The part where she decided to go and stay at his place that one night felt a little off. I don’t think it was shown enough that they were that close for her to just go and stay with him. And when she disappeared for good, I don’t think the film gave the story of his character and the relationship he had with Audrey (whatever it was) enough closure. Either that or I wanted more of Xian Lim in the movie, take and interpret that however you prefer.
It was refreshing to watch James Reid in a non-love team role as a struggling artist/songwriter. I’d like to watch him again in roles where it’s not all about the romance. More of that for him, please!
Sarah Geronimo was charming and good throughout the movie. It was very funny at the start and had tearjerker scenes at the end as well. My niece tells me that’s a Korean thing, I’ll take her word on that. My favorite scenes that made me cry were when Audrey decides to sing with the band even if her grandson had an accident and was in the hospital. She wanted to sing the song her grandson wrote because she knew how important it was to him. The song fit the story well, it made me bawl out watching it. It makes the soundtrack of the film worth checking out!
Another scene that made me cry was when Noni Buencamino, who played Fely’s son, talked to Audrey at the hospital. That part where he wasn’t directly saying that he knew who she was and how he wanted her to move on with her life because he felt he didn’t deserve her and all that she did for him was so moving! I loved it!
It was so nice to be able to watch a non-heavy drama, a non-romantic local movie for a change. Miss Granny is not a love story, it’s not a heavy drama or a straight-up comedy either. It’s a good balance of all of it and then some. It’s not completely perfect, but it was an entertaining movie to watch that I’d be happy to recommend.
No comments
Post a Comment