Strange as it seems
By Rex Catubig
IN what could be life’s pathetic irony, we are actually strangers to the people closest to us. We are photoshopped images or AI of what they perceive us to be. It is perception that is made up of biases and expectations that remotely resemble reality.
On the other hand, a complete stranger to whom we are tabula rasa, becomes the one who perceives the core of our being, from whose random impressions are formed the pigments that paint our quintessence.
Hence, the enigma of love encounter—where attraction and connection happen like spontaneous combustion that sets both heart and soul on fire.
A chance encounter with a complete stranger could be a catalyst for self-realization.
The ill-fated May-December romance of a young married matron and a young hunk rests well on this premise and gives it a modern-day twist.
This is the conventional framework of the movie ‘Just a Stranger’. Yet, it comes up with an unconventional screenplay. It is well crafted and does not show the seams, thus it leaves you to figure its inside out and draw your own conclusion. Despite this seeming ambiguity, its painstaking attention to simple detail is praiseworthy. In a brilliant stroke of continuity, consider this: After a tumultuous confrontation between the two lovers where the lovelorn young man breaks down in tears, the scene segues to their walking home together. The close up of the lover boy showed him with puffy eyes—the honest manifestation of his earlier emotional outburst. Even in the best-case scenario, one cannot erase and paint over the emotional bruise and be a sparkly starry eyed romantic after a heart wrenching quarrel.
The actors who gave flesh and blood and viscera to the ill-starred characters of Mae and Jericho were impressive. The ‘It’s Showtime’ forever frivolous Ann Curtis stepped out of her usual ditsy character and delivered a serious well-orchestrated and relatable portrayal of Mae. While the hitherto unknown body-beautiful Marco Gumabao let us forget he’s all physique as he essays an endearing depiction of a boy-man–of one coming of age and grappling with growing up issues, in the throes of discovering the strangeness of love and life.
For both, subtle gaze and stare bespoke a wellspring of unspoken smoldering emotions.
Watching them as their story unraveled, I ceased to be just a stranger to love and life’s vicissitudes.
I became a witness to the unrelenting twists and turns of love that remains a stranger to discover and come to terms with.
It is not the lovers who are strangers. Love is—being stranger than fiction. #
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