John Tawasil writes about Petersen Vargas’ latest Star Cinema film starring Kathryn Bernardo and Dolly de Leon. We have warned you about the spoilers this review may contain.
NOTE: I am going to spoil most of A Very Good Girl in this review, so if you haven’t seen it yet, don’t read this. Or just don’t read this in the first place, that’s also okay lol.
I’ve often thought of the idea of the revenge film, in that they manage to reveal something about ourselves in the way in which we react to how the revenge is played out. We often expect catharsis from the outcome, where justice is served and everyone gets their just desserts. On the other hand, some filmmakers seek to subvert this paradigm and deny us our catharsis, and it is in this subversion where a film is made or unmade. Petersen Vargas’ A Very Good Girl straddles the line between these two outcomes and gives us a conclusion that is frankly more than a bit frustrating – a shame given that the film features career-best performances by many of its actors.
We first see Mercy (Kathryn Bernardo) having outbid mall mogul Molly (Dolly De Leon) for a totem during a fundraiser auction. Its outline is clearly phallic but another view shows that the other side has a distinctly feminine shape. It’s a symbol of power and control, and from the get go it seems that Mercy has the upper hand. She quickly tries to insinuate herself into Molly’s day by going on a shopping spree.
It quickly becomes clear that Mercy is playing Molly, or at least toying with her in order to exact her revenge. She has struggled for many days to try to earn the money to don the illusion of riches in order to get closer to Molly. And then, slowly but surely, Mercy will dismantle everything that makes Molly what she is.
The energy of this first act strays more towards comedy, leaning into wacky, even campy moments as Mercy enacts her plan. Vargas may be trying to break the mold a little due to his choice of genre and story, but there are some elements that feel very much in the Star Cinema mold, at least in this part.
Mercy achieves a level of success with her plan, but her schemes to endear herself to Molly work a little too well, and the two of them form a twisted mother-daughter dynamic. While multi-award winning actress Dolly De Leon does an outstanding job as the irredeemably evil Molly, Kathryn Bernardo manages to keep up with the veteran actress with a career-best performance. Some of the juiciest bits of the film are of the two confronting each other, with the audience trying to parse if they know that the other party knows, and vice versa. In addition, the other cast members are equally impressive – shout out to Kaori Oinuma for a small but substantial supporting role.
In the course of her success, Mercy leaves a trail of human wreckage in her wake. It’s inevitable that in her quest to destroy Molly, people will get hurt, but it seems that Mercy is unprepared for some of the consequences this vengeance entails. It is here where the film enters its last and most frustrating act.
Mercy lives up to her name and ultimately does not enact her revenge. That’s one point that bothered me long after the film ended; when the ruling classes are using every dirty tactic in their arsenal to oppress us, should our concern still be that we still have the moral high ground? Mercy doesn’t even have that, given that she’s already ruined a dozen lives prior to their final confrontation! Also, if we are to dismiss even that, the film doesn’t stand by that idea either! It’s not that everyone gets their just deserts (everyone does,) but it is done via deus ex machina. Mercy doesn’t have to live with the guilt of killing the person who wronged her; Jesus does her a solid and makes it someone else’s problem. Poor driver just had a very bad day. Heck, I half expected for our lord and savior to high five Mercy as she ascended just before the end credits.
When we are oppressed, the last thing we should do to seek justice is to leave it to karma. Justice ultimately lies in our own hands, because God can’t help those who can’t help themselves. It’s like if at the end of Lino Brocka’s Bona (1980), instead of pouring boiling water on Philip Salvador, Nora Aunor instead leaves the house and prays to God to have him struck by lightning, hopefully in the next fifty years. Committing to the act of vengeance (or to the act of not committing vengeance) is paramount to the construction of a revenge film. For a revenge film to step back from revenge in such a way kinda defeats the purpose of the whole thing.
What really is a “good girl?” Is it someone who shies away from fighting back because it isn’t the “good” thing to do? Is it someone who doesn’t hold people accountable for their deeds? Is it someone who walks away from punishing a truly evil person because legally and practically there’s no way to hurt them? A Very Good Girl seems to lean into a Nietzschean notion of a man who stares into the abyss too long, but in my opinion, becoming the monster is what we sometimes have to be.
This review first appeared on John Tawasil’s blog.
A Very Good Girl is now showing to a theater near you.
