SEVEN SUNDAYS (2017) Review
Directed by Cathy Garcia-Molina
Just by watching the trailer, you’ll get the impression that it kind of feels like a different version of director Cathy Garcia-Molina’s 2013 family movie Four Sisters and a Wedding. And it is. To rename the title, it’s three brothers, a sister and a dying father. But the intention of the film is not to recreate that story. It is to present a new perspective of a familiar Filipino family story that will most definitely touch our hearts.
Seven Sundays tells the story of the Bonifacio family. Like everyone, growing up is as inevitable as leaving someone behind. Allan, Bryan, Cha and Dexter went on with their own lives after their mother died, leaving their father, Manuel with just his nephew. Upon learning that he has a lung cancer, all four of his children decided to sacrifice their Sundays, at least seven of it to spend time as a family.
The film, like all Garcia-Molina films, know what to do with its characters. The material is quite heavy with characters also carrying heavy emotional baggages but it was taken lightly. Not sure it’s the best way to tell the story but we Filipinos do tend to be like that, carrying heavy baggages but still smile and act like everything’s okay. And in here, the Bonifacio family relates to almost every Filipino family there is. From miscommunication, the feeling of not being favored by your parents, the fights and misunderstandings and even the little white lies because we don’t want to hurt anyone.
It gets the Filipino family. And the message it wants to send is that the family will always be there no matter what. That whether time-constraint or not, the moments with the ones you love should be cherished, that whatever fights or misunderstandings you go through, they’re still you’re family.
Seven Sundays has indeed a powerhouse cast. To see Ronaldo Valdez, Cristine Reyes, Enrique Gil, Dingdong Dantes and Aga Muhlach in one film, throwing lines like they’re really a family makes the movie more believable.
There is one thing in the movie that is awkwardly and unnecessarily put. The ending. We get that it wants to end on a celebratory note, but the choice was kind of weird and off putting. But either way, the film is a pleasant family drama comedy film that might make you cry maybe more than once.
3.5 OUT OF 5 STARS
“Seven Sundays” is now showing in cinemas nationwide from Star Cinema. Rated PG by the MTRCB.