#JOWABLE

Levine, 2019, 104 minutes, Colour.
Kim Molina.
Directed by Darryl Yap.

A Filipino light comedy which was very successful at the local box office. While many audiences enjoy the characters and activities, many audiences and critics found it too slight, even trying.

The focus is on a young woman, Elsa, who has failed in relationships. Part of this is explained in a prologue showing her at school, her proposing to an anatomy model, all the right words but no connection with others. There is also the background of her mother, single, with many men in her life.

Elsa has a wide range of friends, including a gay man, a feature prominent in many Filipino films, and works with a group in going to particular functions – where she disgraces herself in speaking frankly about the bride with memories of lack of hygiene at school. She also attends a funeral with the group, her former teacher who had lived alone, dedicated to her work, but Elsa had seen her also speaking affectionately to the anatomy model.

There are various sequences where Elsa discusses her plight with her friends and gets advice, goes to visit her mother, not liking her mother’s boyfriend, going on another function and having a long conversation with a nun about her vocation, issues of sexuality, meanwhile plying the nun with beer. In fact, the nun is quite sympathetic and has some sensible things to say – despite getting drunk. Elsa also visits a church, a long sequence where she prays that God will find a partner for her. Caught in the rain, she is picked up by a man on a motorbike and there is a consequent sexual encounter – and pregnancy. She tries to find the man, going to his agency, but fails.

Elsa learn some lessons, is supported when she gives birth to a son, has a final conversation with her mother who tries to bond with her, and she gets the baby baptised.

Many have found Elsa a difficult character to sympathise with, her self-preoccupation, her bluntness, her misjudgments.

The film was probably geared towards an audience the same age as Elsa and her friends. Of interest, the Catholic background in the Philippines is taken for granted, the role of nuns, their advice, church and prayer, the presence of the priest at a funeral and at a baptism.