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The movie happens in one week, spanning the lives of several characters. One thing you can say about it is that it moves very rapidly and scenes don’t last very long so there’s no chance for the boringga factor to set in.
Direk Joey is well served by his big cast, who deliver fine ensemble acting. Iza Calzado, reliable as always, is perfect as the bitchy TV host who’ll resort to anything and even exploit her own personal life just to make sure people will continue to talk about her so she won’t be “laos”. We heard someone behind us quipping: “Parang si (and she mentions the name of a TV host who’s obviously the peg for Iza’s character).”
Carla Abellana also does well as the ad agency executive who feels sad about her best friend Jason Abalos’ leaving for abroad to study without verbalizing his very palpable feelings for her. Maricar Reyes is touching as the barren wife of the philandering David Chua who finally summons the courage to fight back and drive him out of her life. Kiray Celis provides the comic relief as a petite office worker who thinks she’s very pretty and believes she can make a real man out of a closeted guy who’s in a relationship with a gay man.
But the standout for us among the ladies is Isabelle Daza who, as she has shown before in “It Takes a Man and a Woman” and “Lihis”, is such an effortless natural actress. As a hotelier in Hongkong who has dalliance in bed with Matteo Guidicelli whenever she’s in Manila, she delivers all her lines in a casual throwaway but very effective manner. We just love her even when she’s saying such simple lines as “I won’t go to your funeral” or “We need to do this”. We love her in her final scene when she calls up Matteo but doesn’t talk to him anymore then she gets a call from the guy she’ll marry in Hongkong and she said: “I’m going home.” You have to see the movie to see what we mean. We really hope a good director will give Isabelle a truly meaty role one of these days so she can show more of her mettle as an actress.
Among the guys, Matteo has the most arresting screen presence, definitely leading man material. And he also acts quite credibly, even in his scenes with his mom, Jaclyn Jose. Sarah Geronimo is so lucky to have him as her boyfriend because he looks every inch a good guy. Giving good support are Nathalie Hart as a beauty queen who’s the mistress of David Chua, Beauty Gonzales as Kiray’s best friend who always tries to knock some sense into her head, Jaclyn Jose as Matteo and Maricar’s mom and Alex Castro as the hunky but dumb athlete Iza uses to gain more publicity. The only subplot that we feel didn’t contribute anything much to the movie is that of Ella Cruz as a TV production assistant so in love with a male hustler, Albie Casino. They could both be dropped and the movie won’t suffer at all.