Almost a Love Story lives up to its name

Baneng (Barbie Forteza) and Iggy (Derrick Monasterio) have a very unique friendship: they are childhood friends but they have spent most of their time apart: Baneng's mom works as Iggy's family's househelp-slash-yaya and she's spent most of her life overseas. When Iggy's family offers to bring Baneng to scenic Italy for some holiday downtime, the couple finally gets a chance to meet for the very first time.

The title "Almost a Love Story" is apt, because there isn't much of a love story in this film. Most of the first two thirds of the film consists of cute conversations between Baneng and Iggy through video chat. Everything we need to know about Baneng and Iggy's relationship is implied through dialogue. We don't really see the moment they fall in love, and there isn't a meet cute for these two to get together, because of the circumstances of the story.

To be fair, films about romances involving people who have barely met (if at all) do exist, and some are quite excellent. However, one of the most important things that those films have  in common is a moment or series of moments where the characters gain a deep understanding of each other regardless of the space between them. In this movie, that doesn't really happen. The conversations are mostly surface-level, and there isn't much of an opportunity to see the romance grow. What we get instead is the promise of a romance that doesn't really flesh itself out - with the peak of said romance being an extended sequence during the last third that can be accurately described as "cute couple doing cute things in an exotic location." 

The payoff thus ends up forced and unearned. Baneng goes to Italy and ends up barely knowing Iggy anyway, thanks to a third act contrivance foreshadowed in the first ten or so minutes of the film. It's affecting for all of ten seconds, the emotional impact ending when one realizes that it's all fluff.

The romance ultimately serves as a distraction from something in the movie that I legitimately felt interested in - the peculiar social setup between Baneng, Iggy and their parents. In Filipino society househelpers are at times considered members of the family. In this case, Baneng's mom serves as a second parent to Iggy. Over the years Baneng's mom, and by extension, Baneng herself, has become part of a larger extended family. Yet the film doesn't forget to reiterate the master-servant dynamic, which still plays itself out even to the very end - the turning point of the relationship is orchestrated by Iggy, who has the most power over the situation, and ultimately, the relationship. It's a good thing that the feelings were mutual - imagine a situation where Baneng wasn't in love with Iggy, her mother's amo? Would he have forced the situation? It would have made for some interesting dramatic setups.

But, alas, the film decides to focus on the non-romance that's unfolding in front of us, and instead of tears or an impulse to root for this almost-love-story, all I could really muster was a shrug.