Inay (Lorna Tolentino) speaks for many when she says, "Life is a never-ending misery." But she has special reason to complain in this modest but engaging Filipino tear-jerker. Her 7-year-old daughter, Helen (Isabella de Leon), has cerebral palsy, has never spoken a word and requires as much care as an infant. Her teenage son (Danilo Barrios), the smart one who was going to lift the family out of poverty, has lost his scholarship and come home from Manila to an uncertain future. Her other son, 9-year-old Magnifico (Jiro Manio), doesn't show much promise beyond being a really sweet kid. Her beaten-down husband (Albert MartÃnez) has been working on the same Rubik's cube for a year.
And she has just learned that her mother-in-law, who lives with them, has pancreatic cancer. That's one more helpless person to care for, and they have no idea where they're going to get the 30,000 pesos or so (several months' salary for a schoolteacher, we are told) it will take to bury her.
But the hopefully named Magnifico, in the tradition of omniscient innocents in international films, is determined to help — and to charm everyone the way movie characters occasionally do, just by treating impending death matter-of-factly. He sets out to earn enough money for his grandmother's funeral, buy her a beautiful white dress to be buried in and gather enough scrap wood to build the coffin himself. (The coffin ends up being put to another use.) And if that isn't enough, he needs to buy a wheelchair for Helen, so she can go to the carnival and ride the carousel. No wonder he isn't an outstanding student. Who has time for homework?
This drama isn't as maudlin as it sounds, thanks to the leading actors' fine, understated performances. Maryo J. de los Reyes's direction is sometimes extreme, and the Tagalog screenplay by Michiko Yamamoto (who won a scriptwriting contest with this) is marred by unlikely minor miracles and almost unbelievably cold adults (unless the English subtitles are gross oversimplifications). But this melodrama works, in its fashion. At this year's Kinderfilmfest at the Berlin Film Festival, "Magnifico" received the Crystal Bear, the prize for best feature chosen by a jury of children.---from The New York Times
Blogger: the first movie that ever made me cry a river of tears in an awkward situation because I just asked my bestfriend Jaycee (thanks to you...) a favor for me to see this movie for a movie review in my college days and we end up using his grandfather's dvd which he really is not that fully welcome. But nevertheless this movie is a masterpiece!...credits to the writer for a very great story and the director who gave life to the story together with the cast.
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