ABNKKBSNPLAko?! adapts the popular novel by Bob Ong. It is designed as a delivery system for nostalgia about school, the film mainly composed of short vignettes that recall particular moments of school life, from show and tell, to cutting classes, to falling in love for the first time. The film strives to get to as many of these moments as possible, sacrificing coherence in the process. The film never stops long enough to make any of these moments matter, making all this reminiscing feel a little empty.
The film follows a character named Roberto Ong (Jericho Rosales). It checks in on him in four phases of his life. In elementary school, he experiences his first brush with romance, with the affections of his friend Portia. In high school, as an awkward, acne-ridden teen, he falls hard for a transferee student he refers to as "special someone" (Andi Eigenmann). In college he comes face to face with the prospect of failure. And as working adult, he is confronted with his entire educational past as he deals with an impending reunion.
This is clearly one of those stories that just work better on the page. The film is episodic, jumping between moments in the main character's scholastic history. There's very little plot holding these moments together, the film mainly relying on the nostalgia factor to give these moments their appeal. It all feels a little underbaked. One doesn't really get a sense of what makes the main character tick, as there's never any time to linger on any of these defining moments.
The lack of development is clearest in the relationship with special someone. The film never gets around to making a case for their being together. We only catch glimpses of them, and it never seems like the two are really all that compatible. And yet, the final moments of the film are dependent on how much we care about the two ending up as a couple. The film insists on romance where there is none, and ends up suffering for it. There are other threads that seem more worthy of attention. It would have been nice to get more scenes of Roberto's family, who offer a deeper emotional well to draw from.
It is a bit of a stretch to have Jericho Rosales, Meg Imperial and Vandolph playing high school students, but they mostly get the point across. Rosales isn't quite given enough material to work with, but he gets through everything well enough. Solid support from Imperial and Vandolph helps a lot. Bing Pimentel shines with a nicely understated performance as Roberto's mother, giving an underwritten role a whole lot heart.
ABNKKBSNPLAko?! seems to count on the nostalgia to compensate for the looseness of the narrative. It's a fair approach, but the film doesn't really get deep enough into its milieu. It doesn't have time for anything more than a couple of dropped references, the story moving on before the nostalgia can really take hold. The film seems to want to rush through everything, trying to cram in as much of the book as possible. This story might have been better served by a steadier hand; one willing to let some things go in order to get deeper.
My Rating:
