Jun Robles Lana's Ang Dalawang Mrs Reyes (ABS-CBN Film Productions, Inc., Star Cinema, Quantum Films, The Idea First Company, 2018) does a fine job of rendering its characters’ emotional journeys. Lianne (Judy Ann Santos) and Cindy (Angelica Panganiban) form an unlikely bond after the revelation that their husbands Gary (Joross Gamboa) and Felix (JC de Vera) are leaving them for each other. This arouses complex, mercurial feelings and Ang Dalawang Mrs Reyes portrays those feelings with acuity and empathy. The conceit helps the movie to not feel redundant even as it trades in well-worn breakup tropes and odd-couple hijinks. In fact, the interplay between the relatively novel premise and the all-too-familiar material gives it some edge. Is being ditched because of sexual orientation all that different from being ditched because passions have dimmed or because your husband was sleeping with another woman? At first, it doesn’t seem different at all. Did the wives express any empathy for their exes’ identity struggles? But soon, it sinks in that this is a very specific shock hitting very specific people. Ang Dalawang Mrs Reyes joins a pop-culture boomlet of stories about people coming out as something other than what their loved ones thought they were. Often, the people affected by the coming-out receive as much or more attention than the person who’s actually coming out. The true goal of Ang Dalawang Mrs Reyes is laughs, gained sometimes at the expense of genuine feeling, but funny is funny. Santos and Panganiban are both gifted at physical comedy and are very giving actors, one never overshadowing the other, each giving the other room to be funny, in turn. The best love story of the film is that of Gary and Felix. Just as the main characters is a rarity, so is the portrayal of gay men who are not desexualized. They hold hands and show genuine affection for each other. While Ang Dalawang Mrs Reyes is in no way perfect, it is still a pleasure watching Santos and Panganiban vibe comedically together. If only there were more of it.
Ang Dalawang Mrs Reyes makes everything known by way of a crystal-clear hi-def presentation. The digitally shot picture reveals excellent textural details and superb overall clarity. There's not a flat or less than ideally reproduced texture in the film. All of the basics, skin, hair, clothes and a number of choice environments are in perfectly good working visual order. Colors are lively and punchy. Contrast is fairly even. The picture pushes perhaps ever so slightly warm but certainly favors a broader neutrality. Skin tones are healthy and black levels are perfectly deep. Noise is visible in lower light shots but never egregious in density or distraction. No additional source or encode flaws are apparent. The PCM soundtrack supports the movie's fairly boisterous sonic needs quite well. Clarity is excellent and the low end support is superb, giving weight and depth to what serves as the movie's sonic heartbeat, whether in the many instances when songs are overlaid atop the film or when they are an integral part of it, such as when Lianne and Cindy go to a gay bar. Dialogue otherwise drives the film and its presentation is without obvious flaw. Ang Dalawang Mrs Reyes is basically a sitcom dolled up with great actors, trying to pretend it belongs in the same room as Bwakaw (2012) and Die Beautiful (2016).
Sound Design: Lamberto Casas Jr., Albert Michael M. Idioma
Music: Emerzon Texon
Editor: Maynard Pattaui
Production Design: Marxie Faolen Fadul
Director of Photography: Tey Clamor
Screenplay: Elmer Gatchalian, Jun Robels Lana
Directed By: Jun Robles Lana
