a demented woman & another one badly in need of sex

it started rather well. full of promise. the movie dementia, a horror drama, starring the superstar nora aunor. if there is one reason to watch the film, it is her. to see how much more she can give on the big screen after years of delighting the audience with her brand of art that no other thespian, dead or alive, in the local industry can surpass, or even equal.

ms. aunor is simply an artist in a league of her own, second to none.

it turns out that ms. aunor still has a few aces up her sleeves. in a genre that has yet to elevate itself into an art form, or even something that should be taken seriously.

actually, it's an exciting mix -- ms. aunor in a horror movie. a far cry from her heavy drama outputs where she has essayed some of her best performances to date -- tatlong taong wala diyos, himala, bona, to the more recent ang kwento ni mabuti and hustisya, just to name a few.

as i've mentioned earlier, dementia started really well -- shots of the lush, but quite dangerous mountains and hills and seas, the eerie silence that enveloped the air as the motorized banca with mara (ms. aunor), her cousin (bing loyzaga) and her cousin's husband (yul servo) and their daughter rachel (jasmine smith curtis) arrived in the island. the sound effect accompanying this scene, bit melancholic, a tad hair raising, was just perfect. already, the suspense had started.

from the pier, the family travelled to a remote place. they arrived at an old house where mara supposedly grew up.

just the setting alone, an old house in a nowhere land, mostly dark (power is off at nine in the evening in the island), very far from the town, is in itself scary enough. what if something happens to you, where will you go? how will you escape? whom will you call? how can you see the evils lurking behind the shadows if lights are gone after nine in the evening. oh, you know what i mean, don't you?

her cousin decided to bring her back to the old house to help mara recover her memories and hopefully get better from her illness -- dementia. but what her niece didn't realize was that some memories were better off forgotten. because once they resurface, they can be relentless, dangerous and may even lead to death. (didn't she read the movie's poster?)

with the help of a diary, mara's dark past started to unravel. at the same time, the strange occurrence in the old house -- a repository of dark, disturbing family secrets that should have stayed shut -- also began. a ghost, first as a mysterious child, then in the form of a woman with a very white face (i don't know why she had a very white face. maybe she binged on johnson's baby powder to make her appear more scary?) and wearing a white wedding dress kept appearing before mara, and then later on to her niece, rachel.

then probably tired of just scaring mara and rachel, the ghost (played with aplomb by chynna ortaleza) eventually possessed rachel in her quest for vengeance. and of course to get even with mara, whom she thought abandoned her and reneged on her promise to be with her forever.

i won't elaborate more so as not to spoil your viewing pleasure (that is, if you intend to watch the movie). suffice it to say that the story and its twists are as shallow as horror movies go, and not so wisely crafted. they are a flimsy excuse just to justify the restless soul who keeps on creeping up in the dark, scaring the hell out of rachel (and probably some in the audience), and disturbing the peace of an otherwise serene, hauntingly beautiful place worthy of a frame in a fernando amorsolo canvass.

like a typical horror movie, dementia relied more on the ear-shattering sound effects and the ghastly ghost (how redundant, noh?!) that suddenly appeared out of nowhere to scare the hell out of the audience, a technique that is really more annoying than, well, scary. this is why i hate watching horror movies. they leave you deaf, dumb and dumber.

while nora said little, and even did very little in most part of the movie but to appear lost, her face a blank canvass,  there is one scene towards the end, when the camera zoomed in to her face and to those powerful eyes, showcasing what sort of a thespian she is -- it's all there, with no dialogue: fear, sadness, dread, discovery, melancholy, regrets, horror, tears and snot or mucus, name it.

her face is like the department store sm, she's got it all, demented or not. other than that, the movie is a disappointment, to say the least. it did not live up to its very promising start.

(ps: maybe the movie would have worked if it was a straight drama, with the ghosts a symbolism of her troubled, dark past? and if the story was given more meat with a more believable twist?)

&&&&&&&&&&&&

love, or should i say, sex, in the age of internet is just one click away.

megan (analeigh tipton) is jobless, depressed, and recently dumped by her boyfriend. she's also horny. heeding the advice of her friend and flat mate (who, by the way, is threatening to evict her), she looked for a hook up on the internet. pretty as she is, she quickly found  a willing partner in alex or alec (miles teller).  so she travelled all the way to where he lives, and they had, well, a satisfying sex.

then they woke up the next day, and found that, after they had satisfied their cravings, they really didn't like each other. after a sort of post-sex quarrel, megan walked hastily out of alec's apartment, only to find out that first, she could not open the door because it was barred by thick snow outside, and second, there was no way she could go home to her flat because new york was paralyzed by a snow storm, the worst in decades.

so what to do? against her wishes, she was forced to stay for another day and endure alec in his one-bedroom flat.  they were forced to be courteous to each other. though she clogged his toilet with a piece of paper that she tore from a magazine, causing a slight flooding in the toilet (how so very british noh?), he was still nice to her. or maybe he was starting to like her?

then they quarreled again. maybe out of boredom. alec suggested that they get high so they would feel better and to end the animosity between them. even temporarily. she reluctantly agreed.

once high, they did a lot of nonsense. they even agreed to critique each other's performance in bed so that, well, they could become better lovers to their next sexual conquests.

not contented with that, and maybe for lack of something better to do, they barged into a neighbor's flat (megan broke the glass window) looking for a plunger. so that they could,  you know, unclog alec's toilet. this was actually a ploy that would help solve alec's problem later on. read on.

then later on, like a joke out of nowhere, megan was arrested for breaking and entering the neighbor's flat. she spent a night in jail on new year's eve! it turns out that it was just a ploy used by alec (i told you) so that he could be reunited with megan.

you see, after breaking up with his live in partner of two years, alec realized that he was in love with megan even if they just met and spent a day or two bickering (and having sex once).

but since he did not have her number, nor her last name, and she had deactivated her account on the hook up internet site, the chances of finding her was nil. what to do? a lady from the hook up site gave alec the brilliant idea: call the cops!

after explaining everything to megan, in a scene so corny i nearly threw up, they kissed in the middle of a snowy road. end.

don't even bother watching the movie. it's another forgettable, low-budget romcom that's pretending to be different, deep, hip, smart, trailblazing with its frank discussion about sex in the internet age. sadly, it's just a plain bore. if not for miles teller, i would have turned it all off (i watched it on dvd, by the way that i borrowed from a friend).

as for chemistry between the two lead stars playing lovers, there is none. a big mistake because romcoms normally work because of the spark between the stars playing lovers -- julia roberts and richard gere in pretty woman, for example, had that undeniable chemistry that helped elevate the flimsy scripted film into something of a fairy tale, a very good one at that.

obviously, i like miles teller a lot, even if he is not your typical good looking hollywood leading man with killer smile and washboard abs (think ryan gosling!). but he has this certain appeal on the screen, a boyish charm, and an honesty in his performance that will hook you and make you root for him. trust me.

other than that, the movie doesn't even deserve a one night stand.