MOVIE REVIEW: How To be Yours (2016)

HOW TO BE YOURS (2016) Review
Directed by Dan Villegas

“Dalawa lang yung klase ng tao sa mundo: isang choice A, isang choice B. Choice A, ‘eto yung mas pipiliin yung love over career, choice B naman, career over love.” A line that you would think makes sense but people are actually more complex than just love or career. Priorities can change and the journey through getting all your dreams come true and be happy as a whole isn’t as easy as two choices.

How To Be Yours is basically a love story: boy meets girl, they fall in love and things get in the way of their “happily ever after.” The film is simple but it gets honest in tackling the struggles of having a relationship in a world that requires you to be more than just to be in a relationship.

Anj (Bea Alonzo) is single, for a long time, and while she and her friends celebrate Chinese New Year, she meets Niño (Gerald Anderson) through a friend of a friend, though they saw each other and had an eye contact attraction from afar before that. The two spent each other for a night, talking about life and fun stuff, just sharing, knowing each other through genuine talks. The two started meeting for more than the usual time you spend with friends you just know, and something special begins to grow between Anj and Niño. And this is how we fall in love, not knowing that it’s love already, just liking each other and knowing that you enjoy each others company. But like fairy tales or other love stories, life gets in the way.

Anj is an aspiring chef and has a food business with her friends, while Niño is in sales, selling chandeliers. But Anj just got the offer of a lifetime to be a chef in one of the restaurants of the chef she looks up to, and Niño, as a very supportive boyfriend stays with her through and through, helped her in reaching her goals even if it causes him some time from his work and eventually, resign. This is where How To Be Yours gets to be different from the recent trend of romantic comedy films in the Philippines, it mostly highlights the point of view of the guy, which is done rarely even for Dan Villegas films  (English Only, Please, #WalangForever, The Breakup Playlist, Always Be My Maybe) who mostly centers the view of the lead woman.

How To Be Yours is my most favorite Dan Villegas film to date. It’s honest, it doesn’t overdo the dramas of life and of the relationship and it doesn’t get to have the need to resort to having another person as a third party or the reason for two people who loves each other to fall apart. The film is sincere in how we grow as a person, as a couple, the struggles of the needs in life interfering with the wants. Bea Alonzo is Bea Alonzo, but the film’s more compelling story is Gerald Anderson’s and he does it effectively. He perfectly embodies the silence of men during fights, the genuineness of a man wanting to love, take care and make the love of his life happy. Men like Niño stills exists, if some are wondering.

The shots are beautiful, the story is smooth and clean and the direction is precise. How To Be Yours is the perfect mainstream romantic film, it doesn’t go big with its confrontations and goes simple but realistic with its dialogues. It may be a surprise as romantic comedies are just something we usually have in Philippine cinemas but How To Be Yours definitely wants to be remembered and it does everything impeccably.

“Pero bakit kailangan kong mamili? Why can’t I have both?” Whether you’re Choice A or Choice B, How To Be Yours definitely delivers the needs and the wants of its viewers.

4.5 OUT OF 5 STARS

“How To Be Yours” is now showing in Philippine cinemas nationwide from Star Cinema. Rated PG by the MTRCB.