What does it mean to live in the 21st Century?
This is perhaps the thought bubble that Antoinette Jadaone’s Alone/Together stars Enrique Gil and Liza Soberano ponders as they position themselves as Tin and Raf, sitting on an infamous bench in UP Diliman, under those history-rich trees, looking over the horizon built upon the library science building.
I’m sure you’ve read tons of reviews about this film, and maybe you’ve found yourself in the position of considering if you’re a LizQuen fan through and through, or maybe you were just as curious as I was as to how these two would finally position themselves as mature actors this generation has to offer.
Brief synopsis: the two are Tin and Raf, college sweethearts in the midst of their dreams and in the midst of finding themselves a proper place in the world. Conflicts ensue when Tin, albeit managing to graduate with honors, disappoints herself on her first job and realizes that this will be the true testimony of her life moving forth. Raf on the other hand tries at best to keep up and position himself in Tin’s life, by earning his own medical degree with honors. The two loose each other in the process.
Five years later, they meet in an award’s ceremony, and their lives are completely different than what they envision. Unlike the premise in the teasers and the 1-million view marker for the film’s official trailer, this is not about UP versus UST. Tin works for a corporate job that does not allow her time to focus on Art, and Raf is a DTTB doctor who manages to somehow spend time in an Emergency Room for most of the film, and we only envision him as a Doctor to the Barrios through his tan. He also manages to escape his life as a ER doctor on a whim to be with Tin.
This is a film about our youth, how the pressure to succeed begins in one of the biggest Universities in the country, and the promise of a bountiful future. Two individuals trying to set their foot out the door hoping that the university has trained them well to succeed.
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But as life happens, success doesn’t always come easy, and Tin reaps less than what she sow; because in life there are choices that are meant to be taken in, priorities that needs to be settled first. This is where Jadaone twists the usual romance tropes, as similar to last year’s Never Not Love You and in the writing of Liza’s Tin, it is clear that she has a mission to showcase to our youth that dreams don’t die by themselves. You have to work hard, you have to look hard enough for a support system to do what you have to do because in the end it is a dog-eat-dog world. But perhaps, corporate decisions have gotten in the way of developing Enrique’s Raf for his portrayal, albeit strong and trying to persistently keep up with Liza’s, his story arc falls flat and instead, we find a catalyst supporting the only isolated character in the film.
Liza Soberano is to watch out for in this film. Like many of Jadaone’s other female leads, she takes Tin by heart and emancipates out of the cutesy, clean-cut persona and shows us a performance that is so raw, you can’t help but anticipate as she grows along with the character she portrays. In one particular scene, the shift in her facial expression sets the tone for next sequence — that she is merely a child waiting and wanting — to break free on her own, perhaps charging from her own experience as an actress breaking records and expectations that she is more than just a pretty face.
As a romantic film, despite showcasing a culturally progressive future for our society as aimed by Tin, there’s so much more for their love story to learn to become a truly believable role model especially for young adults who are trying to get through their 20’s. But in the ode of dreams, this film is a perfect example of what it feels like to meander through your 20’s, despite failing at first and falling seven times, but getting up fifty times later.
On an earlier discourse I had with The Third World Cinema Club, we worry that the ending was smeared by studio execs, despite this being a Black Sheep production. It is in the service of Fan Service, to make LizQuen fans happy. If this were the case then, that’s where Alone/Together looses its touch in teaching us a lesson, that there’s beauty in isolation, and that dreams are achievable together under a mature perspective between two lovers.
***As of writing, Alone/ Together is still showing in theaters nationwide.
