When a pair of newlywed musicians get trapped in a storm on their island honeymoon, they must face difficult truths that could tear their marriage apart.
Genre: Drama, Romance Actor: Alessandra De Rossi, JM De Guzman, Chara Ocampo, Chard Ocampo, Ana Abad Santos Director: Manny Palo Country: Philippines
The Gist: Billie (Alessandra De Rossi) narrates glumly as she walks along a trash-strewn beach to catch a boat. She’s leaving this island, and we’re about to spend the next two-ish hours finding out why. Flashback to several days prior, when she wasn’t so glum. She and her new husband, Jecs (JM De Guzman), are freshly married and ready to honeymoon the living crap out of each other. They get to Panglao Island, a gorgeous locale with crystal waters and beaches lined with tall grasses. We soon learn that Jecs’ reputation precedes him even in this relatively remote locale: “Aren’t you that singer? "He's asked right off the boat, and indeed he is. His hit is ‘What If,’ a lite-rock strummer that makes John Mayer sound like Slayer. True to the reality of being a musician trying to make a living in 2023, when Jecs isn’t singing or writing songs, he’s hocking name-brand luggage on social media smack in the middle of his damn honeymoon.
Billie isn’t too annoyed by this—not as much as we are, anyway. I guess that’s what happens when you’re sometimes the subject of flattering photos posted on an up-and-coming star musician’s social media, accompanied by HASHTAG PERFECT WIFE and other such flatteries. They smooch and flirt and settle into their rustic, postcard-worthy cottage nestled on a hill overlooking the sea. Jecs’ mother calls, and he indulges her buttisnkyisms; she tells him honeymoons are for making her a grandchild, and he laughs and Billie winces a little, and really, Mom, can it and let the lovebirds lovebird, all right? Meanwhile, Billie’s father keeps calling, and she keeps ignoring it; he skipped the wedding and is an abusive shithead, so she doesn’t want to give the guy her time, and who can blame her?
Don’t forget, this whole thing is a flashback, so the flashbacks to how Billie and Jecs met mean we’re getting flashbacks within flashbacks, which is, like, bordering on Inception-style Russian-doll narrative layering. Billie’s a keyboardist who was hired by Jecs’ producer or manager or whatever to play on one of his recordings, and she was the only one not afraid to give the writer of a big hit track some constructive criticism, from which love bloomed. Back in the almost-present, the happy couple goes island-hopping and does a little freediving, and then the cracks start to show. It turns out that Billie can’t conceive a child, which explains why her mother-in-law’s commentary makes her so. And her jealous streak starts to throb when she spots an influencer with boobs out to here routinely liking Jecs’ posts: “She’s just clout-chasing for her vlogs! "Jecs protests as we stifle our laughter. Meanwhile, a typhoon starts bearing down on the island, and as the rain and wind batter the house and the power flickers out, the tension between Billie and Jecs simmers and boils. Is the honeymoon over before the honeymoon is over?
The opening is quite bleak; it felt like I’d just seen the ending of the film before it even began. Like reading the last page of the book and feeling a sense of completion rather than intrigue.
This film tries to do what romance-dramas do, which is explore themes of love—specifically, early marriage and real-life relatable conflicts such as family interference, careers, children, and jealousies. While it attempts to cover a lot, the characters aren’t well written with enough depth and backstory to keep you entertained and captivated.
However, the actors give a decent performance; they have some good chemistry on screen, but the characters are not undeniable. The film tries hard to build a perfect relationship through flashbacks, snapshots, and playful music, but this gets boring fast and doesn’t justify their relationship breakdown.
The multiple flashbacks throughout the film felt unnecessary. The intensity on the island when the storms happen is where the film is at its strongest. It takes forty-five minutes to get the first bit of rain, and the main storm only really happens towards the end.
