Sinag Maynila 2019: Persons of Interest

I'm going to talk about the plot of this film in depth, so if you haven't watched it, this is your warning. Better yet, don't read this. Haha.

Let me begin this review (?) by telling you a story. I'm a relatively big fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and one of the episodes of that series is a murder mystery. Episode 139 is titled Aquiel, about a mysterious streak of deaths in a remote space station. Aquiel is one of the apparent casualties, and a prime suspect in the case. But surprise surprise, the culprit turns out to be the dog all along! Yes, you read that right, the dog was actually an alien that murdered the victims, and also Aquiel is actually alive.

Let's just say that Aquiel isn't exactly one of the most well-regarded episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's a boring mystery with annoying or bland characters, but the resolution was pretty neat.

Now I don't know if Ralston Jover watches Star Trek, but when I was watching his latest (?) film, Persons of Interest, I caught myself wondering: did this film just perform an Aquiel? As it turns out, the answer is yes and no, and I'm going to tell you all why.

Jover's filmmaking modus operandi seems to be to make a quirky, interesting character and build a story around him or her. In this case, it's Ramil (Allen Dizon), a blind cook living with his geriatric live-in partner somewhere in Pampanga. Their relationship has taken an acrimonious turn, as Ramil was caught "cooking some dishes" (if you'll forgive the lame and out of place metaphor) with his lover's maid, Doray. Shortly after that, he is accused of food poisoning, as a party held by his lover's daughter turns deadly as they consume food apparently prepared by him. Meanwhile, his son Tristan has been seeing an apparition of a man who looks exactly like Ramil, but this version of Ramil can apparently see. Did Ramil really kill all those guests? If not him, then who?

Now you all may be wondering, is this film really going to do what we think it's going to do? Does it have the balls to say that Ramil 2, Tristan's IMAGINARY FRIEND, was the actual perpetrator of the crime?

The subsequent courtroom drama takes us into Ramil's past: how he met his lover and what could've led him to commit the crime, even though there seems to be no indication that he did it. Even though Ramil checks every box of the "strange quirky character" checklist, he just doesn't come off as a compelling character. Allen Dizon does his best, but his character is simply written as too unsympathetic and bland for us to root for his legal victory. There are also some weird clues along the way. Before his alleged poisoning spree, Ramil somehow solves a Rubik's cube, even though HE'S BLIND. Did he just channel Spider Noir or could he really see?

In all honesty, I would've loved it had the film had the balls to pinpoint the imaginary friend as the one who did it. It would have made absolutely no sense. It would, in retrospect, probably be a bad idea, but I would have championed this film. But alas, we are to judge films as they are, and not as what we want them to be. The culprit turns out to be Tristan all along. Why he did it, I don't really know, since the film doesn't tell us. Was it really because he resented Ramil for cheating on [not his mom] for [also not his mom]? Once his testimony exonerates Ramil, the film ends...

...which brings me back to Aquiel. Aquiel was a boring mystery with an interesting resolution. Even then, it ended up being a forgettable episode. This film was a boring mystery with a mundane resolution, and (at least for me,) it ended up being an equally forgettable film.