Just like “Anak”, “Mother’s Story” is meant to be a three-handkerchief tearjerker. Medy is a make-up artist who just gave birth to a baby daughter. Her husband (Nonie Buencamino) is a crippled bum who squanders her earnings in gambling. A singer doing a concert in the U.S. offers to take her along. In San Francisco, she meets an old friend from the Philyears.ippines (Beth Tamayo) who tells her she should stay and work as a TNT (an illegal alien.) She doesn’t like the idea but when her baby daughter gets sick, she is forced to stay so she can send money for the child’s medical expenses. She ends up staying in the U.S. for seven years.
One thing nice about the movie is its structure. The opening scene shows Medy leaving her family. In the next one, she’s already shown arriving home at the airport, then it goes back to her inside the plane seated with a passenger (Jaime Fabregas) to whom she tells the first part her story, how she got to the U.S. The second part, which is how Medy was kept as a virtual prisoner inside the home of her oppressive American bosses and is somewhat betrayed even by her own best friend who steals part of her earnings, is narrated to her mom later (Daria Ramirez.)
Local melodramas are judged by the copious tears shed by its performers in the course of the movie and “A Mother’s Story” is a winner as far as this aspect is concerned as everyone has a crying scene. Even Nonie as the good-for-nothing husband and Rayver Cruz as the eldest child who is initially insulting to his mom show they can also shed tears easily in front of the camera, just like the female members of the cast. Critics may frown on the mawkish sentimentality unabashedly displayed here but most local moviegoers would love it as they just love stories about martyr moms who make all sorts of sacrifices for her family.
Too bad there are some elements in the movie to which one couldn’t help but raise one’s eyebrows. Earlier, Daria doesn’t know the difference at all between convention and convulsion, but in her dramatic confrontation scene with Medy asking why she didn’t communicate with them through skype or magic jack, she suddenly becomes a techie? Medy stays in her bosses’ home for five years but the daughter of her bosses who becomes her friend remains exactly just the same. There should have been some attempt to make the young American actress portraying the role to appear a bit older in terms of costuming or make up.
Also, when Medy left, the eldest son as played by child actor Aaron Junatas is about 10 or 11 years old. When she returned, he must have 17 or 18 and yet he is about to graduate from his college course. As played by Rayver, he’s in a white uniform and says he comes from duty so he must be taking up nursing. Then, he suddenly introduces this pregnant girlfriend to his mom and says it’s time for him to go abroad for his own family. If they want that kind of ending, then they should have adjusted the age of the eldest son as the glaring mistake greatly diminishes the movie’s credibility.
As a whole, though, the movie is fairly well acted. Daria, Nonie, Rayver, Beth, Xyriel Manabat as the youngest daughter and even Anna Capri as Nonie’s other woman all give fine performances. It’s Pokwang who gives an uneven portrayal. She’s competent in some dramatic scenes but there are times she lapses into unnecessary comedy likes she wants to remind us “na comedian pa rin po ako
