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American
Adobo,
2001, 104 minutes, Rated R
By Carla Robinson
American
Adobo is a film that tries to be the little movie that could. This
slice-of-life tale of five Filipino-American friends comes on like an
emotional steam engine, leaving subtlety and nuance to languish on the
tracks. Ostensibly, its big bleeding heart is in the right place, but
it stumbles over itself, working too hard to show us that Filipinos
are people too.
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This is a booby trap that a lot of films concerned
with assimilation and ethnography fall into. The best of the genre,
Ang Lee's neo-classic Eat Drink Man Woman and Jim Jarmusch's stark,
hilarious Stranger Than
Paradise, work because they presume their
characters' humanity. Free from the burden of proof, they move on to
more complex, interesting agendas. The injustice of American Adobo's
"Filipino-Americans for Dummies" approach is worsened by its
tired storylines and overwrought direction. And, ironically, the film
ultimately tells us very little about the culture with which it is
supposedly preoccupied. Its tearful, huggy friendship scenes are
peppered with conversations that lament the burden of straddling two
worlds and begin with lines like "The problem with our people…."
Insert ethnic group here. And what message does the film seek to
impart with all the characters, except one, ending up with white love
interests?
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© 2001 Magic Adobo Productions
Cast
of American Adobo
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It may well be a good
idea to avoid any film that has food in its title. "Adobo,"
the national dish of the Philippines, is used as a life metaphor, but
it's really an announcement of clichés to come. Somewhere between
Like Water for Chocolate and Chocolat, the food thing has become dated
and worn. In American Adobo, after we meet the food, we meet the cast:
Tere, the lovelorn goody-two shoes (Cherry Pie Picache); Marissa, the
vain, superficial rich chick (Dina Bonnevie); Raul, the hunky,
reckless womanizer (Paolo Montalban); Gerry, the sympathetic lug of a
gay guy (a requirement in any ensemble film these days); and Mike, the
unhappily married man on his way to divorce court.
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Many dinner parties ensue because it's
the easiest way to manage so many characters and to ensure that
everyone gets enough screen time. What doesn't ensue is real character
development, which the film sacrifices in favor of character types.
During and after the parties, Tere, Marissa, Mike, Raul, and Gerry
wander around in various twosomes, crying in each other's wineglasses
and wondering what to do next. But they really needn't worry; the film
has pat solutions in store for all of them.
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Though Laurice Guillen's direction is
problematic, the real beast is first-time writer Vincent Nebrida's
screenplay. Guillen is one of Philipine cinema's most acclaimed
directors and it's clear that she overcompensates for cultural
differences by pouring it on too thick, but Nebrida's writing leaves
little opportunity for a fresh approach. All the actors do solid work,
considering, and Cherry Pie Picache's portrayal of Tere is especially
sweet while Dina Bonnevie's Marissa provides a nice counterbalance.
Paolo Montalban fills Raul with just enough cadishness to be truly
funny.
Still, Filipino-Americans deserve a more
thoughtful, sophisticated film than this one. M
February 2002
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