Beauty in a Bottle tells three connected stories of women having to deal with their insecurities in a world unhealthily obsessed with Beauty. In the first story, advertising veteran Vilma (Assunta de Rossi) fights tooth and nail against a new, younger account manager to win an important new account. The second part details the struggles of Estelle (Angelica Panganiban), an up-and-coming actress who’s gained some weight, and tries to lose it in order to become the endorser of a new beauty product. And the last part follows Judith (Angeline Quinto), who fears that her boyfriend’s affluent family won’t accept her because she’s ugly.
The movie is tied around the titular beauty product, which is interestingly tied to a real life major brand. It’s a fascinating bit of brand integration, as the film seems to serve a criticism of the culture that allows said brand to flourish. Either the film is being subversive, or the brand just doesn’t care. Either way, it creates a fascinating dichotomy at the heart of this movie, which partakes in the excesses of the beauty industry while shaking its head and wagging its finger.
Of the three stories, the first one is the weakest. The concept is strong, but the segment never gets into a comfortable rhythm. It feels like it’s rushing through the comedy, cutting too aggressively between gags, hardly giving them the time to land. The plot, which mainly concerns the competition between Vilma and the new account manager Tanya (Ellen Adarna), doesn’t really work because there isn’t any real time spent with the rival, and not enough time spent on detailing their work. On paper, this segment tackles the most profound and relatable of the movie’s issues about the culture of beauty, but it doesn’t get close enough to give its ideas heft.
The second part is the most entertaining. Angelica Panganiban is terrific as the starlet struggling to lose weight, her reactions providing much of the comedic fuel for the segment. The story takes us into the dehumanizing process of show business, a world where people feel absolutely free to say terrible things about the way you look in front of you. The satire is sharp, and the main character is really well defined. And this story is given a really great comedic ending that plays up the pyrrhic victories in an industry that seems determined to change who you are.
The third segment has its charms, much of it delivered through the enthusiastic performance of Angeline Quinto. There’s an interesting class dimension to this segment that’s worth unraveling, as the story details a working class obsessed with looking and sounding like the super rich. Meanwhile the film portrays a benevolent upper class that doesn’t actually seem to care about any of that. This segment doles out the most straightforward of lessons, but on its way there it manages to somewhat address a very touchy subject. It doesn’t get to explore all the way through, but there is value in its attempt.
Beauty in a Bottle is pretty uneven in the end, but its subversive streak remains intriguing all throughout its runtime. I feel like the film could have better off just picking one of these stories and really running with it, but the approach they took is valid, as it offers up a wider look at the pressures women face in a culture that disproportionately prizes youth, skinniness, and class. They drive down roads plastered with billboards (many of them from the prominent brand featured in the movie) telling them they should all be looking a certain way, and this film really does make a valiant effort to tear into that. I’m not entirely sure the film really gets to the bottom of anything, but it does make the trip down a fairly interesting one.
My Rating:
