Jackie (Kathryn Bernardo) is a 19-year-old tearaway, much to her separated parents' frustration. Interested only in photography and planning to leave for New York City, she's incarcerated one night for crashing her car during a drag race. That's when her father sends her away to live with her mother Leah (Lorna Tolentino) on a medical mission camp in rural Philippines. Upon arriving there, however, Jackie naturally makes several escape attempts and during one of them, on a car trip through the country, she encounters Kiko (Daniel Padilla), the feisty teenage son of the local mayor, who Leah secretly hired to escort her daughter on the trip and then to a hotel where Leah's waiting for her. Once Jackie learns of this, obviously she's upset enough to make another escape attempt, but fate and romance may just keep her in town. Kiko, meanwhile, has his own familial issues to confront and solve.
Filipino director Mae Cruz-Alviar made this and then the exercise in overkill that was Everyday I Love You both in 2015, yet they're so different in quality and tone that I don't think you'd initially realise it unless you had prior knowledge. Crazy Beautiful You is hardly flawless, or ground-breaking, but it's a tolerably charismatic and vibrant teen romance with beautiful locations and adequately layered characters who are all played naturally. The love story is rather cliched, but countering that effectively is the plotline interspersing it about Kiko's involvement in the camp's activities and his efforts to keep his family together, which does offer an intriguing snapshot into contemporary rural Filipino life and as a Westerner, that's obviously something I'm unfamiliar with. Overall, Crazy Beautiful You is no masterwork or game-changer, but it certainly has its charms. 7/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment