‘Love Child’ REVIEW: What it means to love
‘Love Child’ REVIEW: What it means to love
Ayla, Kali and Paolo (Jane Oineza, John Tyrron Ramos and RK Bagatsing) taking a bath outside
Raising a child in this economy is tricky, especially when you’re living in the Philippines. There are some failings in the system that require fixing and the recent inflation made products and services even more expensive. In addition to that, the recent pandemic has plagued the world and affected everyone's lives and income.
The struggle is heftier for those who are raising children with autism as their needs are much more demanding than an average child and your attention and care must be even more present during their formative years.
Love Child follows Paolo (RK Bagatsing) and Ayla (Jane Oineza) as they decide to move to the province to take care of their four-year-old child Kali (John Tyrron Ramos), who has an autism spectrum disorder. We see how they navigate the challenges of raising a kid with his condition and the realities of the harsh world.
Jonathan Jurilla’s debut film is a movie that is easy to love. It has so much empathy for everyone involved: to the children of autism and especially to parents raising one. Earnestness is ever present, even in the toughest and most bittersweet scenes.
You can empathize with Ayla and Paolo’s struggles with parenting and facing the realities of living and raising a kid in a third-world country. Despite their naivete, they strive to make it work for Kali’s sake. Jane Oineza and RK Bagatsing both did a great job of portraying their characters. Their chemistry is electric and believable and they both carry their dramatic scenes impressively.
Ayla and Paolo (Jane Oineza and RK Bagatsing) cuddling at the edge of the bed
There is no official handbook on how to get good at parenting nor a “Parenting Essentials 101” course in college. Planning is a must, but there will be times when you have to improvise or compromise when faced with an unexpected obstacle.
Several times throughout the film, Ayla airs her doubts about her parenting. She worries if their decisions are right: dropping out of college to raise a kid. Their plans for their careers have been halted and sacrifices have been made, even while taking care of four-year-old Kali.
There are some regrets on her part: had they continued their studies instead of raising a kid, she thinks they would’ve been better off. Or had they had loads of cash in their pockets, they could easily provide Kali with his basic needs, speech therapy, and top-notch education.
At the end of the day, these are the choices they made and, despite the regrets and doubts that cloud their thoughts, their love for Kali never faltered and you can see that through their actions toward him.
The majority of the film is filled with moments of regret — with minutes of dialogues and monologues even — during which they could’ve given us more time with Kali solely. For a film called Love Child, the scenes wherein the “child” is actively involved seem infrequent.
While Kali is present, he is mostly seen in the background playing and wandering, while most of the scenes are focused mainly on the parents. The audiences feel for Kali and care for his condition, which only makes you wish that the film gave us more time to get to know him.
Ayla, Kali and Paolo (Jane Oineza, John Tyrron Ramos and RK Bagatsing) with Kali’s teacher
Nevertheless, there is no denying that the story is earnest and captivating. It touches upon a subject that is very sensitive and the film handled autism extremely well. The experiences about autism are very informative as well. These are the most interesting parts of the film, which is already plenty.
However, I can’t help but squirm at its script. The film embraces its clichéd plot points and that is the reality. The frequent mention of its cliches and the rom-com formula made some of its moments unbearable. It was mentioned that Paolo used to pursue filmmaking in college before and it is not surprising that there’ll be nods to film references given that. However, these aforementioned rom-com formula discussions seep through their arguments.
While this is a great recurring theme and using it at the film’s serious moments sort of helped the scenes lighten up, its usage could’ve been kept to a minimum for it can be off-putting at times.
Overall, Love Child is a film for everyone. Its bittersweet and quirky nature will surely win people’s hearts over. Its flaws are also worth noting, but they are not too grievous to the point of detesting the film. It is a film with a lot of love and heart in it and Jurilla’s direction made it special.
Love Child premiered at the 20th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival as part of the Full Length Main Competition category. Catch it in select Ayala Malls cinemas from August 2-11.
