MOVIE REVIEW: Mallari Is Gorgeous But Gets a Bit Ridiculous

(SPOT.ph) Mallari is easily one of the most beautiful looking movies to ever grace the screens of the Metro Manila Film Festival. Pao Orendain's lensing is immaculate, giving the entire film a prestige tinge as it plays out its mad thriller plot. Sadly, looks aren't everything, and the movie loses itself as it mindlessly deploys its jump scares and pushes its endless twists and turns.

This is one of those movies that's hard to talk about without giving too much away. The gist of it is that Jonathan Mallari de Dios (Piolo Pascual, in the first of three roles) returns to his hometown of Magalang, Pampanga to search the family home for a secret that might prevent some future disaster. His family has a long history in the town. He is a descendant of Severino Mallari (also Pascual), who in the early 1800s murdered over fifty people in town. In 1948, his great-uncle Johnrey (Pascual in his third role) was shooting documentary footage for the US Army when he discovers the secret of the Mallari family.

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Mallari puts Piolo Pascual in three different roles; does it stand? 

The movie shifts between the three characters, and the three timelines. It's a complicated script built on an interesting gimmick, but it at times struggles to keep the basics in check. The reason Jonathan goes back to his hometown is pretty flimsy, and what is eventually revealed about the Mallari house isn't sufficiently justified. In the vaguest terms, the movie doesn't really account for why the Mallaris have to be involved in the first place, as these secret, sinister plans would be a lot harder to keep secret if a prominent figure in the community was part of it.

The movie tries to make hay of how the elite treat the people that work for them, but will at the same time draw judgment on other downtrodden figures in the community. On a basic storytelling level, the movie is spotty at best. There's a scene, for example, where Jonathan is handed a film reel that he's been looking for by a girl who has just encountered some sort of ghost. This reel holds important information tied to Jonathan's whole quest, and in a previous scene we are already told that some amazing thing will be revealed when the film is watched.

In the next cut, Jonathan is sweeping his yard. Despite all the supernatural happenings, the violent murders in the town, and the urgency of his own goals, the hero of this story doesn't immediately watch the reel. Maybe it wasn't that important, after all. In general, the film struggles to make things fit together, and it's reflected in its use of jump scares. They're deployed haphazardly, with hardly any consequences shown for the characters who encounter them. There's little difference between a lot of what's in this movie and one of those random jump scare memes your worst friends send you on Viber.

But yes, Mallari looks good. It's got some interesting imagery, and even a couple of neat ideas. But a lot of it just doesn't stand up to scrutiny. It is a movie that has to contrive a lot of its suspense because it doesn't want to do the work of making its elements make sense. So a character might witness something horrible and dangerous, and not leave the scene immediately. In general, the people in Mallari don’t seem to make an effort to keep themselves out of harm's way, and it all just feels ridiculous.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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