SARI-SARING SINENG PINOY

Throw Away Child

Throw Away Child (Regal Films, Inc.) attempts to revive the formula of beleaguered love by imbuing it moral choice. It failed disastrously. Caught in the snarls of an ill-conceived love story, it stumbles countless times. In it, drama explores the limits of absurdity and viewing becomes an exercise in dredging the pit of incongruity. This is most apparent in the final conciliatory scene, one suffused with apologies and promises. After an awkward silence, the actors dutifully deliver lines in a final segment that can only be described as an inept afterthought. The droll and futile arguments they spewed at each other throughout their poorly imagined lives hover as ghastly background. Throw Away Child opens with an arduous, youthful attraction between Delfin (Alfie Anido) and Linda (Dina Bonnevie) that begets a love child. Patch this past onto Dolor's (Alma Moreno) life who is confusingly sharp and witless in her attempts to please Linda.  She leaves the child, Melissa (Janet Giron) under Dolor's care. Seemingly pushed against the wall, old lovers cross paths and battles for custody which again fails, the rusty fulcrum of failure the film exploits. Dolor, her suitor, Ramon (Orestes Ojeda), Linda and Delfin are forced to gamble their hearts, bodies and gut for what they thought was a morally upright choice. Up until the custody hearing, the story maintains precarious lucidity but throw in this wavering mix the character of the Judge (Helen Vela) and I began to sense comic doom.

From then on, Throw Away Child attempted to regain its footing but to no avail. It seems like the ragged patch of road hastily mapped for the film to tread is but a slippery descent to sure failure. The requisite stream of tears, rage and furies cannot make up for a slack and slovenly narrative. Sparks fly between actresses Moreno and Bonnevie, but the same cannot be said for the artificial chemistry between them and lead actors Ojeda and the regrettably forgettable Anido, who glares, seduces, romps but little can be said of his acting. Ojeda woos and pouts, cries and frets, the odd character in a poorly designed game. The film's trudge to ruin is long and drawn out. No acting from its lead characters can ever redeem it. We waver between incredulity and absurdity as arguments are thrown back and forth, the conversations between the characters swing like a badly wound pendulum in off kilter rhythm. However much I turn from the scenes from Throw Away Child over in my head, from the opening sequence to the run-of-the-mill ending, from that cloying end back to the formulaic beginning, there is no meat or backbone to this flagging and absurd story.

Screenplay And Direction: Arsenio Boots Bautista
Director Of Photography: Fortunato B. Bernardo
Music By: Ernani J. Cuenco
Film Editor: Rogelio Salvador
Art Director: Dennis Cid
Produced By: Regal Films, Inc.
Release Date: January 8, 1982