Seasons (2023)

Seasons (2023)

One-dimensional friends struggle to become questionable lovers in this trope-heavy romantic drama

4.5

Movie

Philippines
Tagalog
Drama, Romance
2023
EASY FERRER
Carlo Aquino, Lovi Poe, Sarah Edwards
108 min

TLDR

"When will they kiss?" is not as important as "when will this end?"

What it's about

Two best friends make a pact to find love again, but discover love may be closer than they think.

The take

Bogged down by a platonic best friendship with a suspicious lack of communication and the repetitive use of tacky nicknames, Seasons never gains enough momentum to justify 108 minutes of uninteresting romance tropes. Carlo Aquino and Lovi Poe's chemistry is overshadowed by the glaring mound of unoriginal dialogue and drawn-out story. The lack of awareness and childish antics that culminate at the tail-end of a 15-year-long friendship are more disappointing than believable. With no external (or personal) struggles of their own, every sequence reinforces how flat and underdeveloped our leads are, as if they only engage with the world when close to, or thinking about, each other. Love-me/Love-me-not is never enough to carry the film.

What stands out

Surely, there's a universe where Aquino and Poe get to perform a better love story than this. With nothing to support them, the jovial cadence of their rapport barely shines in the mundane stream of events. It would have been better to see a film that builds on their friendship rather than the gimmick of friends-to-lovers, underscoring the chemistry that makes the film watchable. Their history, shoved into flashbacks and winding monologues, would have been worth both the actors' time and ours.

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