THERE’S NO MORE doubt that John Lloyd Cruz is now the numero uno actor at ABS-CBN. He can be paired with anyone and his TV show will still rate (like ‘Imortal’ that’s now the toprating show at the Kapamilya network) and his latest film, “My Amnesia Girl” with Toni Gonzaga, will still be a hit. No other ABS actor can do that. It’s now very clear that it’s not Bea Alonzo or Sarah Geronimo that made his past films big hits. It’s Lloydie himself. We just saw “Amnesia Girl” and it’s still full house on its third week. Lloydie might be Box Office King again because of this.
We don’t really like the film that much as we find Director Cathy Molina’s efforts to please the crowd and make people laugh quite TH (trying hard), but there’s no doubt Lloydie is superb as a man who gets cold feet on his wedding day and runs away from his bride just when he’s about to face the altar with her. Later on, he realizes he really loves her and tries to woo her back, but she turns out to have amnesia and doesn’t remember him at all. But there’s a twist to that. And there’s another twist later about someone really getting amnesia at film’s end.
The film’s story concept is so “kwela” with the audience and all Direk Cathy’s “pa-cute” efforts hit its target market. We find the proliferation of so many cheesy lines (ex, “Bumili ka ng salbabida kasi baka malunod ka sa pagmamahal ko”) quite disconcerting but the viewers just lap them all up with glee, no matter how corny the dialogue or the jokes might be. So how can you argue with that? And it all works because Lloydie and Toni can carry them all. Not all actors can be persuasive in this kind of “kakornihan” but they both do it with aplomb.
Lloydie is really good as he can do both drama and comedy with equal ease. He’s made to do a lot of foolish and ridiculous things here (Direk Cathy even makes fun of his not-so-well toned body in a shirtless scene where he joins a line up of taller and more buff male models), but he executes them all like a real good sport. Toni is not really a raving beauty like other ABS actresses but she has a charm all her own and she uses it to great advantage even in making highly nuanced reactions on cam. It’s really Lloydie and Toni’s endearing performances that make this zany comedy worth the price of admission.
Courtesy: Showbiz Portal
