Movie Review: That Thing Called Tadhana

Watching this movie is like spending two hours listening to your friends bitch and moan about their recent breakup -- yep, it's that appealing.  The bulk of the movie is spent with the two lead characters (and the only characters at that) talking and eating and travelling and talking and eating and travelling (rinse+repeat).

The movie has a very indie vibe, with low production values and limited crew.  Despite the rawness, it's well made -- I saw no overt flaws, technical or otherwise (excepting a few lines of dialogue with the background noise not scrubbed out, but I'm nitpicking).

So girl is heartbroken, guy is heartbroken, they meet and deal with it.  They spend the entire time just discussing how much time, effort and heart they sunk into the doomed relationship.  The flow of the movie is reminiscent of that old Ethan Hawke movie Before Sunrise, to the point where I'm thinking, given the relative buzz and success Tadhana (Fate/Destiny) 0seemed to have enjoyed, is Tadhana'd to have a sequel or two in the horizon.

I enjoyed the movie, but probably because I like Angelica Panganiban (a lot), and two hours worth of AP is fine by me.  The guy she's with (whose name eludes me), is pretty charming and reminds me of your typical doormat anime lead/protagonist (GF agrees, at least with the charming and 'cute' part).  There is chemistry (I think) and feels (not so much, for me that is :P) and maybe one or two kilig moments.  The movie would have been better received, by me, again, if I were heartbroken/feeling down/suicidal.

(yep, the entire movie looks like that cap above)

So, I heartily recommend it if:

• You or your friend is heartbroken
• You like Angelica Panganiban
• You're interested to see what a group of talented people in the local movie scene can come up with on a shoestring budget and a bunch of digital cameras

I'm just sort of disappointed there weren't that many memorable lines (unless you're full on 100% attention span on it, I suppose), since the movie is just two people talking... a lot.  No dramatic scenes, not much crying, it's full of commas and not enough exclamation points!!!

Verdict: 4/5 Watch it with caution :D It broke my heart. Sorta.

TL;DR:
+ Angelica Panganiban
- Angelica Panganiban (most people I've met either liked her or hated her, I guess she's just that kind of person)
+ copious amounts of lines with putang-ina in it
+ ... by Angelica herself
- Lack of memorable lines
- Much dialogues
-/+ movie broke my heart (and I cannot exactly say why)
+ Angelica Panganiban

Details:
Genre: Romance, Bitching and Moaning
Release Date: Feb 4, 2015
Running Time: Longer than it felt
Notable Stars: Angelica Panganiban
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4170436/