Ang Pambansang Third Wheel: Flawed, but Thoughtful

SPOILER WARNING: I am going to talk about the plot of Ang Pambansang Third Wheel in depth here, so if you do not want to be spoiled, don't read this.

Trina (Yassi Pressman) has always been the third wheel in all of the relationships that she's been in. Opportunity comes knocking in the form of Neo (Sam Milby), who feels like a perfect match. There's a catch, however: Neo is a single dad.

Romantic movies involving single parents are a novelty in Philippine Cinema, partly because the logistics of such a relationship are much more complicated than your typical vanilla romance. When in a relationship with a single mom or dad, one has to deal with both partner and child (and partner's ex-partner, if they are still in the picture.) In reality, couples deal with this setup in varying ways. In itself, this story setup is ripe with possibilities.

To its credit, Ang Pambansang Third Wheel avoids the pitfall of treating the child like a prop; a lesser movie would have made the child exist to make trouble for our couple for the sake of creating conflict. The child in this situation is shown to have his own thoughts on the matter, and Trina has a couple of heartfelt conversations with him, never content to leave him out of the picture. 

On the other hand, the story makes some unexpected turns that don't completely work out. Near the last third of the film, the tone changes dramatically. The whole "relationship with a single parent" angle is pushed to the side, and it is followed by the death of Trina's dad. This is actually a great idea in a way - it could have shown us that while Trina thought she was a third wheel in all of her relationships, that wasn't the case with her father, with this notion transforming the film into a tender examination of a father and daughter relationship. But the film backs away from that particular thread, opting for a conventional romantic movie ending instead, with the complications of the romance-with-a-single-dad having worked themselves out off screen.

To people used to the tone of Ivan Payawal's films, Ang Pambansang Third Wheel is par for the course, though this is more The Comeback (2015) than I America (2016). It can be loud, even obnoxious, but it can still be entertaining - it all boils down to a matter of personal taste. All three films feature a strong, relatively well written female character, and Yassi Pressman shines in this particular case; personally I think she's a talented actress and deserves more interesting roles. The film is well shot and scored, and the ensemble cast is decent, though Alonzo Muhlach spends too much time trying to be cute.

Ang Pambansang Third Wheel may be flawed, but its greatest strength is in its quiet moments, when the characters are left to confront their problems without the noise and bombast. During those times the film can be quite thoughtful, offering an insight into a seldom explored variation of romantic love.