Movie Review: Once in a BLUE MOON

When a full moon occurs twice in one month, the second full moon is termed the blue moon. It is a rare occurrence that the idiom “once in a blue moon” came to mean not very often. And indeed, the film Blue Moon is a once in a blue moon high caliber Filipino movie that I left the cinema with renewed hope for the much defamed Philippine movie industry. Indeed, what primarily drove me to catch this on the big screen was that it was in fact a Palanca award-winning love story.

I have always believed that Filipinos are very talented. It’s just that sometimes Western influence pushes us astray from our strengths in the belief that being hi-tech will make us world class. But then, what do we get? We produce a highly dismal and embarrassing movie like Exodus which brags of overtaking LOTR’s 700 CGI effects. Hello? I hear Peter Jackson and the rest of the world laughing at this absurdity.

Truth is, we are miles away from producing decent hi-tech films because the sad fact is, we don’t have the money to pay the price of advanced technology. Why do we humiliate ourselves with movies like Exodus when we can focus on producing movies like Blue Moon showcasing the Filipino ingenuity in scriptwriting and displaying adept skills in acting?

Blue Moon is an excellent film with superb acting from veterans Eddie Garcia, Christopher de Leon and Boots Anson Roa. Even Dennis Trillo proved his acting mettle to altogether make for a piercing drama of undying love surpassing the passage of time. At the same time, the love story is interwoven with a subplot of father and son relationships maturing in the course of their search for an important woman of their family.

This is definitely a good Filipino movie to catch while foreign films are still blocked for the rest of the week (read: Can’t wait for Narnia!!!!). Incidentally, I saw a beautiful rainbow yesterday after the downpour, plus I saw a good movie, that I think my new year started A-ok. Dali, nood na rin kayo ng Blue Moon! =)