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Filipino films have been on a roll as of late. We, the Cinegeeks, have been fortunate to have front-row seats in seeing this astounding metamorphosis from trash copy-and-paste holiday films starring Vic Sotto or Vice Ganda to modern instant classics like Dustin Celestino’s Ang Duyan ng Magiting to Petersen Vargas’ A Very Good Girl. This just confirmed what we’ve been hoping for a very, very long time - that our local film industry was finally growing up and having the guts to produce and release bold, original content. However, with the 49th Metro Manila Film Festival about to wind down, we can still see that old habits in the industry die hard, namely, creating “new” content apart from previously released, more established work. Sigh.
Rewind tells the story of John (Dingdong Dantes), a workaholic father and husband who's letting his life pass him by. After a tragic accident claims the life of his dear wife, Mary (Marian Rivera), he makes a deal with a mysterious individual (Pepe Herrera) to turn the clock back one day to give him a chance to make things right. Will John make the most of his chance?
Back in the mid-late 2000s to the early 2010s, it felt as though you couldn't walk 20 feet without seeing an ad for a new Nicholas Sparks film that seemingly came out once every week. Even though certain films weren't strictly speaking adapted from his work, Sparks-mania was running wild on all of us jabronis. One of these films was a small indie title called If Only. Starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Paul Nicholls, the now-cult classic romantic drama film was the talk of the town for years on end. Even its theme song, “Love Will Show You Everything,” was inescapable for what seemed like an eternity.
And that's the thing with Rewind. In all honesty, I didn't really need to give you any more info that you already have about If Only to know what this movie is about. More than just a “throwback” like other people are claiming, it’s almost a shot-for-shot copy of If Only mixed in with the familiar Sparks “religious plot device” that made audiences’ hearts melt everywhere back in the day. Hell, even having a catchy AF theme song was taken from the If Only playbook.
"Fantastic acting turns from Dingdong Dantes, Marian Rivera and Pepe Herrera can't quite elevate this film from being just a good facsimile of great existing work."
That is not to say that the acting isn’t up to snuff. No, the true strength of the film lies in its lead, portrayed by Dingdong Dantes.
"Dingdong Dantes pulls from a wellspring of true emotion to portray a man drowning in responsibilities that he forgets to give the most important people in his life his time and his love."
Special mention must also be given to Pepe Herrera in a supporting role that could’ve ended up being cheesy as hell in another actor’s hands; he imbibes this special role with an everyman relatability that quite honestly got to us when we first saw this film.
However, we cannot ignore the elephant in this room, which is, again, the film’s script. Yes, we have mentioned earlier that this is a remake of a film from almost 20 years ago, but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t achieve its goal - to make money by pulling on everyone’s heartstrings. Many people will be decrying the movie’s lack of awards; the reason why Rewind didn’t win any awards was because they didn’t focus on originality, but rather they set out to make a derivative people-pleasing tearjerker. Star Cinema knows the formula for making instant money - use two bankable stars and put them into a formulaic rom-com.
Kudos to the actors for doing a very admirable job with very familiar material. However, there’s a reason why If Only is topping the iTunes charts once again - it’s because people know that Rewind is a near-carbon copy of a better film.
"This is not to say, though, that the film didn’t do its job; rather, it achieved exactly what it set out to do - and if they’re going to make a copy, at least it was a good copy."
Rewind is one of the films showcased during the 49th Metro Manila Film Festival.
Cinegeeks rating : B
Watch the trailer here :