Main Cast: Coco Martin, Julia Montes
Supporting Cast: Cherie Gil, Ella Cruz, Gabby Concepcion
Director: Manny Palo
Genre: Drama / Romance
Synopsis: After seeing her on the train, amateur artist Patrick (Coco Martin) becomes obsessed with Jillian (Julia Montes). He pursues her relentlessly, despite not knowing anything about her. He eventually wins her over, only to learn that she was the driver of the car that ran over his mother years ago. This fact, along with other issues, causes Patrick to push Jillian away, even as she falls in love with him. Patrick eventually learns the error of his ways, but by then, he might be far too late.
Emmanuel Palo's A Moment in Time is an exercise in barefaced mediocrity. There is absolutely nothing in the film that exhibits any effort from the filmmakers to be anything other than fodder.
A Moment In Time is one of those romantic movies that make you question the very concept of romance in cinema. The film rigidly follows the shape of a romantic story, going through the motions of an onscreen courtship, complete with all the silly things that we’ve seen in dozens of movies prior. And yet none of it evokes anything that resembles human experience. The movie takes for granted that the two people at the center of the picture are meant to be together, and builds a ludicrous relationship founded on some really unsettling actions that would result in criminal charges in the real world.
A Moment In Time gets it completely backwards. It provides a really strong argument for keeping these two people apart. And at the same time, it provides few reasons for them to be together. Their entire romance is founded on one of the creepiest courtships I’ve ever seen in a movie. And yet we are supposed to find it cute, if only because Coco Martin has put on his smile, and Julia Montes is wearing quirky glasses. But it’s not cute. It’s just an amalgamation of all the things that have already been in Star Cinema romances: big gestures, public humiliation, montages set to standards, a trip to another country, and a reunion that seems to happen by default. This film just didn’t have its heart in any of it.
