Pagdadalaga

I finally, finally found time to watch a movie. A "grand gimmick" that turned out to be a meeting between two friends (me and Cleo of HDPP) finally provided me the chance to get myself into a movie house again. I did mention that my last movie was Flight Plan with Mau and Anna. I missed Harry Potter, Just like Heaven, Exorcism of Emily Rose and many others in between. But I'm sure I'll catch up on them soon now that it's nearing Christmas already... although come to think of it, I have to rush before the "Manila Film Festival" limit my choices again to kiddie stuffs. But well, if I could support the local movie industry that way...

Immediately after we realized that only the two of us would be showing up for the "grand reunion", we decided to watch a movie, and "Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros" was a unanimous choice (as if there were a lot to vote naman....)!

It was dragging in the beginning. Given the title, I was immediately curious how Maxi is. However, the movie managed to keep Maxi's character in the background till it gets to the part when she was "discovered" by Victor, her first love. It was only then that her character got to the forefront of the story... and "blossomed".

Although I came expecting to watch a movie about a gay teenager, I was surprised to find it was much too complex than that. The characters of the movie were confusingly "real"... distorted people like many of us with our double standards and moral lapses. Maxi's gentle and reassuring presence in her family was refreshing. The soft spots of "tough guys" like her brothers and father exposed only to those they are intimately close with was depicted with heartwarming precision by the writer. The treatment of the writer to the story and it's characters allow you to see them as they - in the raw, feeling for them and at the same time remaining fully aware that life treated them fairly.

No judgments. Conflicting yet straightforward. Heartfelt and objective. It was as real as life.

It was as real as family too. How does one describe the feeling of family? Seeking attention from each other. Covering up for each other. Not agreeing but at the same time supporting. The security of having family together and the insecurity of it's absence. The unique and irreplaceable presence of each and every member of the family. Exposing to this group of people our strongest and our weakest moments...our most mature and most "babyish" episodes that only family is allowed to witness.

It was also as real as love. Maxi's coming of age and first glimpse of love made her vulnerable but it also allowed her to grow up. We grow up when we get hurt. I think her "pagdadalaga" did not happen when she found love... but when she lost it.

How the feelings of Maxi and Victor got exposed in the film was surprisingly subtle and poetic. I could not remove from my mind the blood trickling down Victor's body after Maxi expires brought about by the weariness of being torn between her family and Victor. And yes, the moving "conversation" veiled by whistles, the dark night and the dim street lamp that reflects on the tears rolling down both their cheeks. But ultimately, Maxi's triumphant entry into "maturity" in the last scene of the movie walking away wisely from her own weakness.

Pagdadalaga Ni Maximo Oliveros was a funny, tickling, empowering movie that allows you to think, feel, watch, hear, understand and accept all at the same time. If Maxi was real, she'd be straightly gay, and crookedly human.