Being a film about a pair of swindlers, Paolo O’Hara’s The Babysitters begins with an auspicious prelude in which a caroller drones sarcastic lyrics to those who would not spare him loose change. The scene, whilst not the most striking starter, sets the film thematically well. In the world that has become, nothing is free as it is. If there is doom that husband-and-wife duo Rod and Lucy fears, it is this fact. All comes with a price, no matter if bought, borrowed or stolen. Including their adoptive son Ben (Jhiz Deocareza), whom they have taken in away from the perils of an err-filled, swindling life. But what must they do, as parents, if they have one more mouth to feed?
Easy money: hustle.
But then if the film is sincere in latching on its thematic foundation—which it is, quite admirably—it becomes easy for the audience to predict where the story will go. We understand that there will be one and only one thing constant in the film, which is that there is a cost to anything borrowed or stolen. There is a wistful sense of fatalism in this that feels curiously light, partly because there is a comic tone to its ambiguously dramatic core, and that it plays out like a made-for-television feature (see: Jason Gainza and Katya Santos’s ‘serye-worthy performances). Either way, The Babysitters does not seem to make the commitment to the actual potential of its themes, or—much harder to accept—fails simply.
The latter seems the case: while The Babysitters plays a complete and well-paced narrative, it also insists on convention. More blatant observers will argue that the film is too ‘teleserye’ for ‘pelikula,’ too indie for mainstream vice versa, and they will be right, especially that the film flounders from one reaction shot after another, stretching out dialogue ad nauseam and settling for monotonous emotionality. The narrative floats by you but leaves a curious feeling of unease, in that as an audience you become passive as you watch the film, the fantastic arrest of cinema squandered.
There is a better story in The Babysitters than what it tells in its presentation. For some reason, their ill-adopted son Ben grows to be a prodigious mind-master—either psychic or some genius—and Rod willingly exploits this skill for their laborious schemes. At some point, the couple makes slubber attempts in denouncing their acts of crime, which can play as a metaphor for one of the many sacrifices parenthood demands, but the script runs thin long before we make thought of this and other possibilities. It is a tragedy.
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THE BABYSITTERS (2014)
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Paolo O’Hara / PH
Drama, Comedy / PG
Screenplay: Mara Paulina, Paolo O’Hara
Cast: Jason Gainza, Katya Santos, Jhiz Deocareza…
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“Eh, may sa-dimonyo ang batang ito kung natutuwa sa’kin, ah.”
~Rod (Jason Gainza)
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