(Take THE BIG CHILL, mix in some adobo seasoning, and this is what you get...)
CAST: Christopher De Leon, Dina Bonnevie, Cherry Pie Picache, Paolo Montalban, Ricky Davao, Gloria Romero, Sandy Andolong, Randy Becker, Keesha Sharp, Susan Valdez.
DIRECTOR: Laurice Guillen
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and some seriously angsty Filipino-Americans straight ahead.
Name any ethnicity swimming in the melting pot that is the United States, and chances are there's already been a film made about that culture. Chinese-Americans? THE JOY LUCK CLUB. Greek-Americans? MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING. Italian-Americans? BIG NIGHT, MOONSTRUCK. African-Americans? Too many to mention.
One ethnicity that has definitely not been explored in American film is Philippine. Until 2001, that is. AMERICAN ADOBO chronicles a year in the lives of several first-generation Philippine-Americans living in the New York City area. They are: (1) Mike (Christopher De Leon), news editor who is unhappily married and longs to return to the Motherland of the P.I.; (2) Marissa (Dina Bonnevie), sleek and snobbish executive who is also a cougar with a musician boy-toy; (3) Tere (Cherry Pie Picache), sweet and gentle old maid whose scrumptious dinners bring the group together on a weekly basis; (4) Gerry (Ricky Davao), meek and reserved dude who is terrified of his mother finding out that he's as gay as a rainbow; (5) and Raul (Paolo Montalban), handsome and predatory lothario who changes girlfriends more often than some people comb their hair.
Mike, Marissa, Tere, Gerry, and Raul were all college buds from Manila, and still remain just as close even nearly 20 years later, living in the Big Apple - and having weekly dinners with native food as the centerpiece. Our movie starts with glisteningly gorgeous (and scrumptious) shots of Filipino food being prepared: meat being sliced, vegetables being diced, custard being whipped. By the time we see Tere presiding over an armada of bubbling pots and pans a few minutes later, we're ready to call for some takeout.
Tere is preparing for another one of her famous dinners. This one is going to be special because an old friend of the group, Lorna (Sal Occoa) is coming to the States for a visit. The gathering starts on a good note, with the (evidently) usual crap happening: (1) Mike bitches about his family and yearns to chuck 'em all and go back to the Philippines; (2) Marissa shamelessly brags about how rich and beautiful she is; (3) Raul brags about what a marauding stud-muffin he is; (3) Raul teases Gerry by implying that he's gay; (4) Tere just smiles graciously through this all, and (5) Lorna silently thanks Jesus Our Lord that she dodged a major bullet by staying in the Philippines and therefore avoided having to mingle with these choads on a regular basis.
Seems like life is also a bit complicated for our tight-knit group of transplanted Pinoys. For example: (1) Mike's wife is seriously getting on his nerves, as are his kids; (2) Marissa's boy-toy Sam (Randy Becker) is cheating so much on her that he should get Frequent Fucker Miles or something; (3) Gerry's been telling everyone that he has a girlfriend named "Chris" who is really a boyfriend named "Chris" - and he's terrified of his old-fashioned Roman Catholic mother back in the P.I. finding out; (4) Raul receives a letter from an ex-girlfriend that she's H.I.V.-positive - and might have passed it on to him (Oh. SHIT); and (5) Tere is growing increasingly heart-broken over her inability to keep dates from standing her up even when she cooks them fabulous adobo dinners.
Will Mike eventually choose to follow his heart back to the Motherland and tell his "Americanized" wife and kids to fuck off? Will Marissa eventually tire of Sam's wandering dick and give it the Lorena Bobbitt treatment? Will Raul test positive for HIV? And if he doesn't, will he finally become a one-woman guy? Or will he go back to fucking anything with a moist hole and a heartbeat? What happens when Gerry accidentally sends nude pics of him and "Chris" to his mum in the P.I.? Will he jump on the first Manila-bound plane to intercept them? Or is he pretty much fucked? What about Tere? Is she doomed to cook adobo for her spoken-for pals forever, while she herself remains, well, unspoken-for? Or is her Prince Charming closer than she thinks?
See for yourself. But, as with all the other food flicks we reviewed this week, don't do it on an empty stomach. And don't be surprised if you end up Googling the recipe for Philippine adobo (or the address of the nearest Philippine restaurant) when this movie is over.
BUT, SERIOUSLY: Being half-Asian, AMERICAN ADOBO resonated with me. While I may not be a transplanted Filipino, but instead a Eurasian who was born in the States and grew up in the Philippines, I still found myself relating to the travails and triumphs of the folks in this flick. Being Eurasian brings you into the orbit of Philippine communities in other countries, and the characters of AMERICAN ADOBO are very accurate representations of the folks that move in those circles.
The central themes of this movie are the importance of family (whether one of blood or one of friends), remembering one's cultural roots, and the sacrifice that Filipinos often make for those families and roots. But it also adds another theme to the (pardon the pun) stew: the need to pursue what burns in your blood - even at the risk of potentially losing family. This is most clear in Mike's storyline. He has obviously become dissatisfied with his life in America (much like the Italian, Primo, in BIG NIGHT) and longs to return home. For most of the film's running time, he is torn between his loyalty to his family (who have become hopelessly "Americanized") and his love for his roots. Eventually, he makes a decision - and it's not an easy one. Christopher De Leon (a veteran of Philippine cinema) makes Mike's arc "crisis" compelling to watch. But when he meets his not-so-unexpected soulmate late in the movie, it is a gloriously wonderful moment
This sense of isolation in a new world is also reflected in Tere's storyline. Here we have a woman who is kind, humble, funny, feisty, intelligent, and one hell of a great cook - and yet she is treated like crap by guy after guy. Cherry Pie Picache movingly conveys Tere's quiet fear that this is going to be her lot in life. The film's best scene shows her and Marissa standing under the Brooklyn Bridge, talking about their lives. Tere tells her friend that her life has become an endless cycle: "Work, Commute, Eat, Sleep. Work, Commute, Eat, Sleep..." And she's afraid that it will never change - and she will only be remembered for her adobo - nothing else. Picache, who played more vixen-ish characters in her Philippine films, inverts that persona here and delivers AMERICAN ADOBO'S best character - and best performance. She makes Tere the kind of woman you want to see find happiness - and when she does at the end (in a final scene that I suspect UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN would emulate three years later) you can't help but almost cheer. Go, girl.
As Tere's polar opposite, Marissa is one of those career girls who is all about looks, money, and glamour. The fact that she's Philippine adds another layer of interest. Juggling appreciation for her mother country (as evidenced by her loyalty to her old friends and their weekly dinners) and a lust for the American way (affairs with younger men, buying expensive things, ruthless ambition), Marissa is an interesting character with many contradictions. Dina Bonnevie, a stunning Eurasian actress and also a veteran of Philippine cinema, makes Marissa vibrant, confident, scared, caustic, sweet, shallow, and genuine - all at the same time. For the most part, she delivers a good performance. There are a couple of scenes where she overplays her character's bitchy streak, and if I had been director Laurice Guillen, I would have asked for re-takes and a more subtle approach. These scenes slightly mar what could've been a flawless performance from Bonnevie. Still, when she's good - she's very good. Especially in the scene under the Brooklyn Bridge with Tere, where we finally see the vulnerable little girl under Marissa's coolly confident facade.
As Gerry, the closeted homosexual who hides his love affair with his boyfriend, Ricky Davao delivers a goofy, funny, and quirkily-touching performance. Unfortunately, we never get to see much of his relationship with Chris until it's almost over. Also, Gloria Romero as Gerry's shocked mother delivers a somewhat melodramatic performance that undercuts what could've been a touching coming-out scene. You almost want to yell at the screen: "Your son's gay, lady! Deal with it! It's not like he told you he's been selling crack to middle-schoolers!" This is another scene where I would've insisted on re-takes and a more low-key approach.
As the last member of the group, the playboy Raul who gets his comeuppance, Paolo Montalban is believably caddish and flippant. He's handsome and charming enough that you can believe him easily bagging almost any girl he sets his mind to, especially the kind with a soft spot for exotic men. And when Raul gets that dreaded letter about his possible infection, the ensuing tumult and confusion is believably played by Montalban.
Bottom line: AMERICAN ADOBO is a reasonably well-made and entertaining flick about the experiences and sacrifices of Philippine-Americans in the States. You don't have to be an immigrant to relate to these people's trials and tribulations as they try to make their way through this crazy world called the US of A. After all, even if we weren't immigrants ourselves, one of our ancestors surely was.
The immigrant experience is the common link between all American families, and AMERICAN ADOBO tells the Philippine version of that story.
MABUHAY!
