The Breakup Playlist is a pretty informative movie, imparting a number of lessons about life, love and career that we can learn from. First lesson: the music industry sucks; unless you're in it for the love of what you're doing, not only will you fade into obscurity, singing commercial jingles and singing in smoke-filled, half-empty bars until the wee hours of the night, you'd also remain poor. That is, until luck, nostalgia or music camp lifts you up from poverty and hopefully allow you to live the next few years of your life in relative comfort. Very realistic (and depressing) depiction, that.
Next: it shows us a Sarah Geronimo that is neither stuck in her tweens, nor is she acting like a pop-princess acting like an actress in her next tweetums role. She's all grown up now and her maturity (and every improving looks) is a joy to watch.
The movie also tells shows us a Piolo Pascual who can act like a manly rock star, complete with singing chops; he's actually more believable than Ewan MacGregor in Moulin Rouge in that Piolo's voice does not seem to be altered or improved upon with digital effects magic.
And, as a straight man, I'd have to admit Piolo is quite the eye-candy, even without having to take his shirt off at all (well, maybe just once, but it wasn't fan service).
Last, but not the least, The Breakup Playlist shows us that even though the movie has its sad parts (it is about a breakup after all), the combination of catchy Pinoy pop tunes and an onscreen relationship that's pretty relate-able (at least to myself and the GF), did not turn the movie viewing experience into a cry-fest; in fact, we left the movie house with a happy heart.
The movie is very well made, with good production values, especially the sound effects part (notice how good everything sounded when Piolo leaves and enters his car) which is a surprise, since sound always gets the least amount of attention in local movies.
A majority of the locations were shot here in Quezon City, and there were no grand locations (like Sagada or Batanes), which is welcome, as the main focus of the movie is still Sarah and Piolo's relationship within the movie.
There were still blatant product placements (BDO, SMDC, TV PLUS), but not as much as your last Kris Aquino or Vic Sotto movie.
All in all, I'm glad we went to see this movie -- it's an incremental improvement over past efforts (in general), especially with good production values, excellent performances by the actors and a relationship that's pretty believable and not too contrived. It's well worth your time watching this if you like Filipino movies (if you're a fan of either lead actors, then it's a no brainer).
Verdict: 4/5 Must See!
Details:
Genre: Romance
Release Date: July 1, 2015
Notable Actors: Piolo Pascual, Sarah Geronimo
Seen At: SM San Mateo
