Edna puts a sinister twist on the OFW movie. It opens with the titular character (Irma Adlawan) returning home to her family for Christmas. It starts off as a happy reunion, but as she spends more time with them, ugly secrets come to light. She wakes up the first morning to find that her home has been turned into a Mahjong parlor. Her husband isn't giving her the attention she craves, and only seems interested in getting her to invest in a new business venture. Her eldest son might be lying about what he does for a living. Her only daughter is in a toxic relationship with an older man. And her youngest son has grown distant, and is prone to fits of violence.
Edna isn’t about the horrors that OFWs face abroad, though there is some suggestion of that in the film as well. It looks into the horrors that OFWs may face at home, when they return to a family that only feels their influence through the money and gifts they send on a regular basis. The film sketches out a descent into madness, the lead character driven to extremes as each new revelation hits her with a bracing dose of harsh reality.
The film turns the plight of the OFW coming into the stuff of horror movies. It piles on the problems, each of Edna’s family members revealing depths of venality and deceptiveness that feel almost monstrous. It is intuitive that having a parent be separated from a family might have negative effects. Edna takes that intuition and lets it spiral out of control. There are points where it feels like the film actually goes a bit too far, the plot at times going into directions that feel overly broad and clichéd as it endeavors to make Edna’s lot in life seem even more pathetic.
But the film redeems itself as it heads into a positively daring third act. The film’s investment in the Job-like suffering of its main character pays off in an unexpected bit of dramatic comeuppance. The film does where most aren’t willing to tread, playing out the dark fantasy that might come with witnessing such awfulness. A scene after the credits undoes some of this effect, but while it’s happening it’s kind of glorious. The film embraces the madness of the main character and makes bracing choices that go well beyond the realm of what people might expect from a movie about an OFW homecoming.
The film is directed by Ronnie Lazaro, a great actor and a mainstay of Filipino cinema. The direction is a little uneven at points, the film often at times lurching forward at awkward intervals. But he manages to put together some really interesting images. Lazaro does get a lot out of his actors. Irma Adlawan is great, but this is no surprise. But credit must be given to the film for actually giving the actress plenty to work with. The character is very well defined, with plenty of personal detail that allow Adlawan to work her magic. Lazaro himself is in the film as Edna’s husband, and his swarthy charm is used to pretty great effect.
Edna ultimately feels a little unsure of itself. The scene after the credits exemplifies this approach, the film hedging its more daring choices by presenting an alternative possibility. But it doesn’t entirely negate the formidable pleasures that this film delivers. Even in its most uneven moments, one can feel the film trying to reach for greater heights. And though it doesn’t always work out, the result is far more interesting than what we usually get. It’s certainly worth a look.
My Rating:
