ESCAPE. Anna (Jessy Mendiola) and Rye (Jericho
Rosales) try to make sense of the relationship they have in 'The Girl in
the Orange Dress.' All screenshots form YouTube/Quantum Films
One
morning inside a hotel suite, ordinary girl Anna (Jessy Mendiola) wakes
up nearly naked beside immensely popular actor Rye (Jericho Rosales).
As a picture of Rye and Anna, whose face is hidden and is only
identifiable by the distinctly orange dress the night before, together
start to spread online, the two figure out how to escape from the hotel
that by then is being stormed by rabid fans and persistent reporters,
all very eager to know the girl Rye had spent the night with.
Comic possibilities
Essentially, the plot of The Girl in the Orange Dress is all about a mountain formed out of a molehill.
This actually could have been loads of fun had writer
and director Jay Abello understood the comic possibilities of the blunt
absurdity of the premise. Sadly, comedy here is just an afterthought,
presented in sparse stabs spinning from the many supporting characters
who turn out to be more entertaining than the leads. The mountain in the
middle of The Girl in the Orange Dress is a rickety and farfetched romance, one that would immediately collapse in an instance of a landslide.
The landslides are both plenty and glaring.
The screenplay is shoddy in its attempt to mold a
romance around a one-night stand that turns into wild goose chase out of
a besieged hotel. While both Rosales and Mendiola are brimming with
individual charisma, their scenes together lack both spark and sentiment
to convince that all the trouble to keep them together is worth it.
Then there is the very flimsy back story of Anna involving her
best friend who has a crazed obsession over Rye. The side plot is
bizarre in the sense that it doesn’t add anything to the love story. It
only blurs it further, turning it into a strange love triangle that is
grounded on childish fantasies rather than the truest of emotions. It is
almost as if the film has surrendered to utter immaturity.
GIRL IN THE DRESS. Anna becomes a mystery to Rye's fans.
Pretty sights and sounds
Thankfully, The Girl in the Orange Dress is often gorgeous to look at and listen to.
Abello knows that his film’s greatest assets are its
two leads, and he photographs them lusciously. The melodies that
accompany the mostly dull and questionable sequences are pleasant. In
fact, if the level of crafting committed to The Girl in the Orange Dress is
granted to a material that is more on point with its emotions rather
than on the need to sustain a clever premise, the result would have been
more delightful than dreary.
Simply put, The Girl in the Orange Dress film falls under all the pressure of its cute but curbed premise.
The film struggles to sustain not just believability
but also enthusiasm as all the farce and foolishness pile upon each
other, resulting in wreckage that is in desperate need to be perfumed
with the pretty sights and sounds of a generic rom-com.
KISS. Anna finds herself falling for Rye despite their statuses.
Mad, mad world
The Girl in the Orange Dress isn’t just meager in its ambitions, it is also completely oblivious to the possible depth of its content.
No comments:
Post a Comment