If the broad, life-affirming outlines of In His Mother's Eyes (7K Entertainment, 2023) are familiar to the point of banality, in the hands of actors as gifted as Maricel Soriano, Roderick Paulate and LA Santos, this tale of sacrifice and sibling rivalry achieves moments of real poignancy and power. There are few things as hard to play as genuine selflessness, but Paulate, without a trace of sanctimony, makes Bibs' goodness utterly natural. You can see why Santos's Tim would find comfort in his Uncle Bibs. He's rooted in the present and open to experience in ways his mother will never know. Soriano, all edges and nervous, guilty motion, makes us believe in Lucy's transformation without going soft. She's tough and abrasive, and she'll stay one. It's rare to see a film with such honest, transparent emotion and to spend time with actors who don't feel the need to cloak intimate feelings in irony. Paulate is especially moving, perhaps in part because we know him primarily as a comedian and forget all the tender emotional values he brings to drama. Soriano's ability to transform herself is remarkable. She manages to portray a quiet strengthIn without ever letting you doubt that her character is very ill. In point of fact, Tim's autism isn't really the story's main concern. Writers Jerry Gracio and Gina Marissa Tagasa are more interested in the relationship between Lucy and Bibs, and Tim's relationship with the world in general. Director FM Reyes overworks the close-ups, hits too many notes on the head, but he knows enough not to get in the way of his three superb stars, who put on a display of emotional fireworks that is lovely to behold.
In His Mother's Eyes has a child whose behavior is unpredictable. With a rich vein of bleak humor, the film is about the healing power of sacrifice. In His Mother’s Eyes has so much star power. The famous faces make it difficult, at first to sink into the story, but eventually we do. The characters become so convincing that even if we’re aware of Soriano and Paulate, it’s as if these events are happening to them. Once Lucy and Bibs are reunited, the material boils down into a series of probing conversations. There is a lot to say and Reyes lets them say it. How do families fall apart? Why do many have one sibling who takes on the responsibilities of maintaining the family home, while others get away as far as they can? Is one the martyr and the other taking advantage? Or does everyone get the role they really desire? What In His Mother's Eyes argues is that Lucy by fleeing the home, may have shortchanged herself and that Bibs might have benefitted. Or perhaps not, perhaps Lucy was better off keeping out of the way. There is a point in the film where such questions inspired parallel questions in my own mind. All families have illness and death, and therefore all families generate such questions. The true depth of In His Mother's Eyes is revealed in the fact that the story is not about these questions. They are incidental. The film focuses instead on the ways Lucy and Bibs deal with their relationship–which they both desperately need to do–and the way Tim learns something, however haphazardly, about the difference between true unhappiness and the complaints of childhood. This emotionally affecting drama makes the point that the love we give to others is the only thing that makes life worth living. In His Mother's Eyes is full of complex, well-observed emotion and gives us the rare satisfaction of respecting its characters, forgiving their flaws and contradictions and celebrating their capacity to love.
A Film By: FM Reyes
Screenplay: Jerry Gracio, Gina Marissa Tagasa
Directors of Photography: Neil Daza, LPS, Rap Ramirez
Production Design: Marxie Maolen F. Fadul
Editor: Vanessa Ubas de Leon
Music Composed By: Carmina Robles-Cuya
Sound Design: Albert Michael M. Idioma, Garem Roi B. Rosales
