By Brontë H. Lacsamana, Reporter
Movie Review
I’mPerfect
Directed by Sigrid Andrea Bernardo
Produced by Nathan Studios
MTRCB Rating: G
I’mPerfect — which bagged the Best Picture award at the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) — is a love story between Jiro and Jessica, two adults with Down Syndrome, an empowering celebration of people that society would consider as flawed. But in its effort to tick all the boxes of a sickly sweet romance, it adds unnecessary layers of drama that weigh the film down with glaring flaws.
It stars Earl Jonathan Amaba and Anne Krystel Daphne Go, marking the first film in Philippine history to have leads with Down Syndrome (DS) themselves. Plus, the production worked with organizations of Filipinos with DS, resulting in a level of detail grounded in real experiences. That alone makes it worth a watch, especially for those who want to learn about the lives, struggles, and motivations of these individuals and their family members.
Director Sigrid Andrea Bernardo sets everything up nicely, giving the two leads solid characterization. There’s Jessica (played by deserving MMFF Best Actress winner Ms. Go), a 28-year-old lady with DS who is independent enough to maintain her beauty and makeup hobby and work part-time as a waitress at a café. At the school where DS individuals can socialize with each other, she meets Jiro (played by a charming Mr. Amaba), a shy and aloof 29-year-old young man with a sheltered upbringing and love for swimming and windchimes.
The supporting cast, mainly their parents, provide some realistic levity to the cheesy whirlwind romance that unfolds between the two. Single mom Norma (played by Sylvia Sanchez) is a seamstress who takes pride in raising Jessica to be her own person despite her disability, while absent father Arman (Joey Marquez) enters the picture and learns of the beautiful woman his daughter has become. Jiro’s parents are both physicians, which explains his upscale yet isolated lifestyle: there’s the overprotective Lizel (Lorna Tolentino) and more easygoing yet equally concerned Dan (Tonton Gutierrez).
An interesting character is Jiro’s younger brother Ryan (Zaijian Jaranilla) who is pressured to pursue medicine like his parents and finds solace in his older brother’s unwavering support for his budding music career. His development pretty much stalls, however, with little to endear us to him outside of his scenes with Jiro. A scene stealer would be Janice de Belen, who plays Jiro’s former yaya (nursemaid) who is sympathetic to Jiro and Jessica’s struggle for independence — but there is one scene where she kind of over-acts and scares the audience into thinking someone died.
Though DS is a condition which many people know something about, I’mPerfect exceeds in going beyond how those who have it look and what they can’t do. It sheds light on their capabilities in supportive environments, and their potential to live relatively normal lives. Jiro and Jessica’s adventures range from mischief with friends to romantic love and even to sexual feelings. Most eye-opening for many viewers would be the health risks that DS individuals have, such as heart problems, and the reality that they may have shorter life expectancies due to these risks.
Unfortunately, in its attempt to be a full-blown romcom and informative drama at the same time, it feels quite long, especially in the back half when Jiro and Jessica take on an us-against-the-world mentality. The parents grappling with letting go of their adult children is engaging, but the extremes to which the couple take their rebellion borders on laughably fantastical. It careens towards an ending that is designed to make you cry, even though it doesn’t really need to get there for this story to pack a punch.
I’mPerfect already hits the right notes but ultimately falls off with poor narrative choices. Does running away with your lover have to mean making the worst possible decisions? Why establish a class difference between them when the discomfort inherent in this dynamic doesn’t manifest at all in the story? Especially when they resort to a simple life in the province to live out their so-called dream together?
All these flaws are frustrating, given all the good the film accomplishes in the first half. It’s what makes the MMFF Best Picture win baffling, because despite the achievements of this film, it did not do the wonderfully conceived story the most justice. It has decent cinematography, editing, production design, score, the works, but the story really goes off the rails at times. The main takeaway, though, is that Krystel Go is an amazing actress who deserves to get more roles after this. Every micro expression she gives is intentional, brimming with emotion, and her line delivery is always impeccable.
I’mPerfect, despite its flaws, manages to break the preconceived notion that those with developmental disabilities are lesser beings. It shows that, with the support they need, persons with DS can actually do so much, and Ms. Go is the exact manifestation of that. At best, the film is a lovely, cute, eye-opening experience, and hopefully even more stories will come (without the unnecessary drama) that can express its core message better.
