Unofficially Yours raises the bar in rom-coms!

The expertise of the ABS-CBN network in the area of love stories and rom-coms remains undisputed at present, although the two other networks are closing in on them. Star Cinema’s latest blockbuster movie Unofficially Yoursreportedly earned P18.5M at the box-office on opening day, which may end up even higher than its No Other Woman of P220M after three weeks. Both films feature women who reject commitments.

These two movies exhibit the unspoken norm in today’s society, that of one-night stands. Not that this is an entirely new concept. Several films have already delved into this subject successfully: The hit Friends with Benefits starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis who both believed they could live together having sex without falling in love (which got into a controversy with No Strings Attached with the same plot); the local success No Other Woman with Anne Curtis as the no-commitment girl, Cristine Reyes, and Derek Ramsey. In Unofficially Yours, it is Angel Locsin who refuses to be committed to John Lloyd Cruz’s dedicated pursuit.

There are just so many plots about love. Those dealing with fear of commitment run the gamut of bad experience with an ex-lover, phobia from parents separating, fear of responsibility, and a weak and clingy partner. So how does one be accepted as better than the other? Going through reviews of Friends with Benefits (FWB), we find clearly that the saving factor of a hackneyed plot is the superiority of the performance. Rotten Tomatoes wrote: “FWB adds nothing new to its well-worn rom-com formula, but the chemistry between Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis is almost enough to carry the movie by itself.” Time follows it up by saying that despite the plot being predictable, “the film was elevated by energetic dialogue, the sexual chemistry between the leads.”

-philstar