A Very Special Love (2008)

I agree with top 2 reviews. Also, i am like many pinoys who barely watch pinoy movies because they've been exposed to the romantic-action/ romantic-comedy with rehashed script/massacre film type cinema. TBH i saw this because a friend of mine wrote the script. And I was not disappointed BECAUSE it was so well done.i think it wasn't the scripts fault. Both lloydie and sarah g are natural actors and extremely charming on screen individually. i dislike bea alonzo, whose forte is limited to drama, and/or juday whose staple acting skills is limited to that of a palengkera...even if shes a really good one. Sarah G is a happy medium, except she doesn't have the sexy factor -- which renders the script useless because, character-wise, a model-dating rich boy like lloydie's character will probably be shallow enough to dismiss his EA just because she wasn't attractive enough. She is too wholesome to be in this role.(you can imagine sexy scenes with bea and lloydie... how about lloydie and sarah? *crickets*) i just didn't think SarahG and Lloydie suited each other, period. if you've ever seen The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, or Sandra Bullock & Ryan Reynolds in the Proposal, it's was kind of like that. A really good love story should have passion and sex (not necessarily sex scenes) exploding from their eyes.STRANGELY ENOUGH, despite that fact, i found the scenes endearing-almost cringe-worthy, "kilig" and relatable. THey had NO sexy scenes nor did they have kissing scenes... and that is EXTREMELY CLEVER DIRECTING / ACTING / SCRIPT considering it is a love story. The director put in this very short dream sequence during the meeting which I find to be inspired by anime. I literally chortled. it was refreshing. Sarah's character was refreshing. And sometimes, well sometimes you don't really need sex scenes (or kissing scenes, for that matter) for a good love story.Everyone just wants to live out their own inner Cinderella, and they don't have to be of the poor class to dream.

I have been away from the Philippines for 22 years. I hated watching Filipino films because they are too loud, the acting is non-existent, everybody talks at the same time, the soundtrack overwhelms the dialogues, the plot is just impossible. This movie happens to be one of those exceptions. Just as any romantic Filipino movie, this one is schmaltzy, cheesy and full of the kilig factor. Well, we're Filipinos, so what? But this one is well-made. The acting of everyone is not exaggerated. Sarah G is a delight to watch showing different range of emotions without going the OA route. John Lloyd's acting is restrained, multi-dimensional, which is a break from most Philippine actors. He also exudes a magnetic screen presence. It is one of those films that I did not fast-forward.I wish we can make lots of Filipino films like this one.

There should be a campaign to ask Star Cinema to at least, stop from making romantic- comedies for a while, though its the only genre making money, otherwise we might end up as diabetics with all these saccharine-filled, artificially and inorganic laden rom-com movies, seriously!I have to admit that the technical aspects of the film, camera/cinematography, editing, sound (at least some of the scenes doesn't feel canned), and production design (except for Sarah's wig) were noteworthy. But, still, the story and screenplay still needs a lot of work. To begin with, Miguel (John Lloyd) and Laida's (Sarah) love story is not believable. I'm not saying because he was rich and she was poor, but, it wasn't EARNED. Laida is almost without flaw and her cutesy/naive approach in life, which others might find endearing, is not a strong rationality for Miguel to fall in love in that span of three weeks. First, she's not that strikingly pretty, compared to his ex-gf, and we didn't get to see Miguel's relationship with his Brazilian ex-gf, except for a scene where he makes Laida deliver flowers to her. OK, so we get it that he has no time, but we still don't know how deep the relationship is. Which makes Laida's contrived arrival, being the new editorial assistant, suspicious. And what do we get? Forced "scenes" meant to generate shrieks and "ooohs, aaahs" from the audience. Enough of that!The sun dance? Where'd it come from? It is funny, but to use it out of the blue without planting it earlier on the movie diminishes its effect. I must say though that the revelation about Miguel's mom was good. At least, it gave some light as to why he's like that. Still, the story and screenplay feels lacking, and to top it off, we get back-to-back monologue, dramatic scenes between Miguel and his dad, Laida and her mom and the icing on the cake, that very cheesy, nauseating scene in the end where Miguel says sorry to Laida in the rain! All I want to do at that moment is vomit. I'm a romantic person, but there is no romance at all at that contrived, trite, artificial and inorganic moment.

TOP GROSSING FILIPINO FILM OF ALL TIME1. A VERY SPECIAL LOVE (Star Cinema/Viva,2008) 200M 2. Sukob (Star Cinema,2006) 186.41M 3. Ang Tanging Ina (Star Cinema,2003) 177.82M 4. Kasal,Kasali,Kasalo (Star Cinema,2006) 162.37M 5. One More Chance (Star Cinema,2007) 152.79M 6. Caregiver (Star cinema,2008) 140M 7. A Love story (Star Cinema,2007) 139.61M 8. Enteng Kabisote3 (Octoarts,2006) 128M 9. Sakal,Sakali,Saklolo (Star Cinema,2007) 122.90M 10. Isusumbong Kita sa Tatay Ko (Star Cinema,1997) 104M 11. My Bestfriend's Girlfriend (GMA/Reagal) 101.24MFengshui,Dubai and For the First Time all from Star Cinema may enter the top 10.I don't have yet their gross income.