Ostensibly, “The Gifted” is about the rivalry of two friends from grade school, the rich girl Zoe Tuason (Anne Curtis) and the working class Aica Tabayoyong (Cristine Reyes). They’re both outcasts who have no choice but be drawn to each other. But the friendship turns to hatred because Zoe becomes envious of Aica’s being always number one in class. It will go to absurd proportions where Zoe would even try to kill Aica. This is reminiscent of such dark comedies as Robert Zemeckis’ “Death Becomes Her” where Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn are the rivals, and George Cukor’s “Rich and Famous” where Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen are the rivals.
The reason “The Gifted” works so well is that writer-director Chris Martinez succeeds in getting uniformly excellent performances from his entire cast, from the leads Anne, Cristine and Sam Milby as the man who comes between them, and the supporting cast, mainly the parents: Arlene Muhlach and Ricky Rivero as Anne’s oversized parents, and Candy Pangilinan and Dominic Choa as Cristine’s parents from whom she gets her unruly bushy eyebrows and crooked teeth.
This is Sam’s best performance in his entire career. He’s not only very well photographed here and comes out every inch the perfect looking leading man, but he also does so well delivering all his Tagalog lines with a Visayan accent.
Cristine manages to be truly sympathetic as the ugly Aica. We particularly like her in that restaurant scene where she asks Anne with tears effortlessly flowing down her cheeks: “Hindi mo ba ako talaga minahal bilang kaibigan?” Her showdown with Anne is one of the most riotous catfights in local cinema, filmed like an overstaged production number reminiscent of Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie trying to outshoot each other in “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”.
But there’s no doubt that “The Gifted” is Anne’s movie. As the scheming uber bitch and snarling selfish protagonist who has no interest in anyone but herself, she revels in getting the opportunity to make ‘sabog ng lagim’ and bitchery all over the place. She sizzles in so many scenes, enacting them with cartoon meanness especially in those scenes where she does the vilest and most brazen things without remorse.
But mind you, things may not be what they seem. So don’t be fooled and don’t leave the theatre right away once the end credits start rolling. Something else is in store for you. And how local audiences will take the following revelations is something we’re really curious to find out. Getting an R-13 rating because this is definitely not a comedy for kids, only an insane local writer-director like Chris Martinez can pull this satirical trick and we’re glad Viva Entertainment backed him and gave him the green light in taking his risky comic premise right to the very edge.