.
‘ADIK SA’YO’ is a movie that explores the meaning of love and addiction. JM de Guzman as Paulo and Cindy Miranda as Joy have been best friends since high school.
Joy has been secretly harboring romantic feelings for Paulo but he is unmindful of her as he is an incorrigible victim of substance abuse.
Paulo has been in and out of rehab for years and now, he is trying his best to go straight and stay clean and sober.
Joy, who admits being addicted to Paulo, tries her best to be supportive and is ready to help him in any way to make sure he doesn’t go backsliding to his vice.
The question now is will he be not “manhid” anymore and finally reciprocate his best friend Joy’s feelings for him?
Or will Joy finally wake up, realize that it would be better for him to devote her energy to some body else, and give up her feelings for Paulo?
Written by Mel Mendoza-del Rosario and directed by Nuel Naval, whose last film as a team was the acclaimed relationship drama, “Family Matters”, their new movie is well served by its lead stars, JM de Guzman and Cindy Miranda, who are both effective in their respective roles.
Actually, the film works mainly because both JM and Cindy give endearing performances.
Cindy is totally into JM but he is clueless and so totally not into her. What’s nice is that the film doesn’t offer a concrete resolution on their relationship issues just to give the viewers the obligatory happy ending.
We are so happy for JM that Viva gave him this new movie after his rehab issues and he didn’t shrink from accepting it since the character of Paulo is something akin to him in real life.
JM’s engaging screen presence remains to be incandescent on screen, even after all his personal tribulations.
What’s nice is that JM’s acting is so effortless and yet he knows how to pull all stops to affect the viewer.
This is particularly true in that crucial scene near the end with his over attentive mom, played with heartwarming poignancy by comedian Candy Pangilinan in a rare dramatic role.
Cindy is equally impressive as the luckless girl who is hopelessly obsessed with someone who just friend zoned her.
She has many hilarious scenes, like the one where she does live selling of her plants that ended disastrously when she starts fighting boisterously online with her bashers.
She gives a very committed performance and is equally moving in the scenes where she makes a total fool of herself for JM, specially when she confesses how much she loves him and yet he’s completely oblivious of her honest feelings for him.
Mel Mendoza del Rosario’s script has many stirring scenes.
We like JM’s moments with his therapist which were written with so much understanding as JM opens up his heart and soul while talking to his counselor.
Director Nuel Naval complements Mel’s vision of what the movie intends to communicate about addiction and relationships..
Also giving great support are Andrew Muhlach as JM’s supportive younger brother and Minnie Aguilar as Cindy’s harassed mom who cannot understand why she has gone absolutely crazy over JM. Likewise, we enjoyed the adequate use of many Tagalog songs in a number of key scenes.
