Jennylyn's RomComs

So to relieve my stress, I went to the movies and saw them all - English Only, Walang Forever, and Just the Three of Us. Jennylyn rules the romcom genre at the moment! In the first movie, she is so lovely that I contemplated dressing myself up in a certain translator's stylish country flare for an un-intimidating dating. But not necessarily to meet a Derek (although that won't be a minus), but to get and finalize high paying translation/editing/writing job contracts!

In the second film, Jen was impossibly successful as a romance novelist, getting all her "hugot" premises from real love-life. The romantic course of her life precludes a self-destructive streak but, thank you very much, the self-destruction is worth it because the cause of the ultimately desired self-devastation is Jericho Rosales! I was thinking that precisely the reason for my lack of romantic story arches was my passion for placid wholeness. No wonder, I can't really write anything happy or tragic in a passionate sense. My life has been sooooo nice.

And finally, in Just the Three of Us, Jen's problematic and losyang demeanor, her already devastated self seeking escape, sexes the unromantic, prim and proper John Lloyd Cruz - and bam! They beget a child! Catastrophe in the beginning, but everybody is happy in the end. There's no way this cliched love story will end tragically. But well, Jen's character is one for feminists to grind their teeth into.

I have my own Hollywood RomCom favorites; On top of them all , Nottinghill. The best scene there is the last scene with "When You Say Nothing At All" playing in its loveliness in the background while a pregnant Julia Roberts reclines on Hugh Grant's lap (she's a superstar), as the latter reads a book (he's a book-lover), and both are quiet and comfortable in each other's company.

In Jennylyn's movies however, I can't recall a single scene that leaves an impact. All three movies showcase Jen's comedic flare, but she is the same Jennylyn Mercado, the GMA actress, in all three movies: the same delivery of the dialogues, the same quirky movements, the same laugh when happy, the same cry when sad, the same facial mannerisms. Even her hair style is the same in all three movies, since in all, she looks like she has forgotten to comb her hair, but she looks pretty nonetheless.

Meanwhile, the male characters are mere romantic interests, and to add dimension, they all came from problematic family backgrounds, and they eventually meet Jen's big and happy family (always). There are always those loyal friends of course for both woman and man and the usual complications of friends giving wisdom but philos never wins in an eros charged story.

But I was entertained nevertheless. Would I recommend them? Yes, but just remember that they aren't for the morally upright.

I am still waiting for Jen's definitive romcom. I hope she won't stay on in this stereo-casting.