The Bride and the Lover is not entirely original, since it is apparent that its concept apes the string of love-triangle-slash-infidelity movies our cinemas have had for months.
What's different is the treatment. It takes its style from camp, and the movie's comedic scenes make this apparent. The problem is when it veers away from camp and comedy to pad it's running time of dramatic scenes that feels perfunctory--the sad scenes are there not mainly because the story needs them, but because those previous infidelity movies used them.
This is most felt toward the movie's end, when the big ridiculous fight happened and director Lamangan followed that brilliant scene with a tearjerking exchange between one lead character and her mother.
The movie could have ended in high spirits after the fight scene, but the dramatic moment made everything crash down to Earth.
Among the actors, only Lovi Poe was able to navigate the movie's different tones, switching from camp to serious-depressed movie character quite convincingly. On the other hand, Jennylyn looked confused by the movie's shifting tones, and Paulo was criminally under-utilized they could have replaced him with a blow-up doll.
A recommendation, therefore: when The Bride and The Lover is released in the DVD, there should be a special feature that lets viewers watch only the good parts.
(A kinder version of this review appears here.)
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