Rosario

Dear Mr. Manny V. Pangilinan,

Before tonight, I was really looking forward to watching this period film. Plus, I like Jennylyn Mercado. Jennylyn Mercado in the title role of a period film sounded good to me. And so I almost forced my mom to watch the movie with me tonight.

And so we went. Boy, were we disappointed, photography and cinematography aside.

Mr. Pangilinan, I would just like to ask, what was the point of you allowing the scandalous story of your grandmother to be made into a movie? There was no denoument. No resolution. No saving grace, well, except for Dolphy (that best supporting actor award was well-deserved). It just seems like you aired dirty laundry of the family. Or are you donating the proceeds of the film to your uncle? But if you were doing the latter, couldn’t you afford to give financial assistance to your family members?

There was a part in the ending narrative where Hesus (Dolphy’s character) was telling the audience that he hopes by telling the story of his mom, he can help his mom find forgiveness/atonement/whatever it was he was helping his mom find that she couldn’t while she was still alive. And I’m like, how? By showing her life as an example of the result of poor choices? I bet 90% of the audience in the Glorietta 4 already knew that before seeing the movie.

Would’ve been better if we found out that you were a descendant of Hesus. Rosario would’ve recovered a little bit of what was lost, somehow, in some way. It’s kind of a bummer to just find out that she died a pauper whose bones can be found in only God knows where. I think it would’ve been better if we found out a bit of closure…like, did she work after parting ways with Carding or did she just waste her life away before dying? Did she turn to God because of the hardships she experienced or did she lose her faith? Do you understand what I’m trying to say?

Oh, and Jennylyn was disappointing too. I couldn’t feel her. Not once did I feel that she was hurt. Not even the part wherein she was asking for forgiveness from Maria Rosario, aka Soledad. I got more emotion from Vicente who seemed to look like he was about to hug her out of pity.

Anyway, Rosario, your grandma was very pretty. It’s no wonder why she was pursued by a lot of men at the time.

I’m not sure how this can be resolved but maybe you can do something about it in the DVD. Maybe do great featurettes to be included in the DVD to expound more. I promise to buy that DVD if it includes great featurettes.

Sincerely,