‘I’MPERFECT’ REVIEW: Irresistible Beyond Its Own Missteps
‘I’MPERFECT’ REVIEW: Irresistible Beyond Its Own Missteps
There’s a moment in the middle of this grown-up coming-of-age film, where these two lovebirds get their friends to host a spontaneous marriage ceremony for them. This is a moment that really highlights not only how in love these two are, but how much they’re ready to leap into the next chapter together. This happens before they skip one of their Special Education school’s activities and run away together, and it is one of I’MPERFECT’s emotional highlights that its cast and crew, led by Sigrid Andrea Bernardo in the director’s chair, should be proud of.
I’MPERFECT starts with the introduction of Jessica (Krystel Go) and Jiro (Earl Jonathan Amaba), both persons with Down Syndrome studying at a Special Education school. It’s Jiro’s first day since he transferred, and they’re both tasked with introducing themselves through videos. Right away, it’s clear that Jessica is a go-getter and Jiro is still lovingly weighed down by his caring parents, who basically do most of the introducing for him. When Jiro lays eyes on Jessica, it’s love at first sight and it doesn’t take as long for Jessica to feel the same way. Their early courtship hits just the right sweet spot to be endearing without becoming unrealistic in the way that film romances can get.
Of course, they both have parents in their orbits. Jessica is largely raised by Norma (Sylvia Sanchez) as a single parent, with her father largely being out of the picture. Jiro has two accomplished parents in Liezel (Lorna Tolentino) and Dan (Tonton Gutierrez), who gradually find themselves at odds over their two sons — Jiro and his younger brother Ryan (Zaijan Jaranilla) — growing into men with different goals from what they may have dreamed up. These subplots converge just as Jiro and Jessica’s romance reach new depths.
However, even if their character development is the push that’s essential for Jiro and Jessica’s maturation, it can’t help but sometimes feel that their extended screentime is mirroring Liezel’s difficulty in letting her sons, Jiro in particular, go and be their own men. Some scenes of Jiro and Jessica with their classmates, including individuals with Down Syndrome, have the kind of lived-in personalities that I had hoped the film explored more. It’s no doubt that the film has interest in showing how mature and ready its two main characters are for the world, but detailing that point with richer insights of what their peers are like, would’ve made for a more refreshing approach to an already nuanced story.
This is a sentiment that, I’ll admit, may seem like I’m asking something from the film that it gave enough of and need not share more, since it might not have been what it wanted to do. But it’s a point I raise especially in consideration of its ending. Needless to say, the two lovebirds experience loss in a way that takes them coldly into the reality of their condition. And before the film gets there, two points the film drums up are worries that they may not be ready for the real world on one hand, and that they’re ready to face what’s ahead on the other end of it.
When these points are “answered” by the film’s conclusion, I can’t help but read it cynically especially since the film props up the capabilities that Jiro and Jessica have to do grown-up work. It’s well-established, their parents have done everything to get them to where they are at the start of the film and have more than enough wisdom to impart in the next chapter of their lives. But when the film tries to put a bow on it, it skips past their practical logic away so that reality can do its work.
It is, honestly, an ending I could see working if the film had at least made an effort to show in more meaningful ways how Jiro and Jessica work through its challenges. But in choosing the melodramatic turn, the film sinks back into its imperfections after investing so much time establishing the unique ways that persons with Down Syndrome can grow up today.
Each scene lingers in the drama, sometimes to the detriment of making each moment last longer than it should. What makes I’MPERFECT work despite its imperfections is the winning work between its leads, and the unforced charm that Bernardo works into their stories and the world around them. It also helps that there are moments where the families of the central couple, from different backgrounds and united by their children’s love, feel like a group that you’d like to root for as they head into bigger steps in life. Their familiar and sweet bond is the type best suited for the Metro Manila Film Festival, and one that makes the film irresistible beyond its own missteps.
