Here and There (2021)

Very Realistic Lockdown Movie

I'm not the best at reviews but I'll try my best. You can watch this movie on Netflix!

MY OPINION (no spoiler version):
Watch this movie if you want to watch something to I guess "reminisce" on how lockdown was. This movie focuses more on the events, news, feelings, activities during quarantine more than the actual romance at hand. There is romance but not strong enough and not concrete as other romance movies. Not horrible, not bad movie, but the ending felt abrupt and made me rate this movie lower. Definitely could've been better, if you are looking for more romance, definitely skip out on this movie. I feel like maybe this movie will be better years from now when covid isn't as fresh as it still currently is.
REALISM:
The story was very realistic taking the events from quarantine. I do not live in the Philippines, but I do live in the US and there were many similarities regarding lockdown, and like different activities like that Korean whipped coffee, video calling, screen sharing a movie to watch together. All these things were depicted very realistically. Even the fact that the two leads met online was super realistic as I was doing the same thing during the lockdown. They even touched on the hopefulness of covid being over in a month in the beginning and then the contrast of losing hope in the future towards the end. Which I feel a lot of us went through.

DIRECTING STYLE:
Realism gets cut short when the leads are in the same setting during a video call but were not touching each other just looking at each other. One cool bit is that the director would cut to different settings that both the characters are in when they are on a video call but the leads will be featured in the same room. This showcased the video call but still made the movie seem vast with them being in the "same" room. However, in one scene they shared headphones during a bit of a montage so I was confused into thinking that they were in the same room.

ACTING:
The acting was very good. The male lead sang very well in one part. I especially loved how the FL's mom was a front-line worker and the worries that come along with that were also very realistic. The leads had phenomenal chemistry especially shown during the cooking scene. This left me wanting to see more from these leads, more romance. However, this movie simply tapped a level of romance which was so unfortunate. At one part you think they'll meet only for it to not happen. This happened twice. And the second part was at the end.

CRITIQUES:
I wanted to see more romance. The leads never got officially together, there was a plothole to who Ros was. Was she actually the ex??? More importantly, the ending left you unsatisfied. The leads never meet as the ML decided to ditch their "date" to go home. Fair enough. But it just ends there. No message from the ML, the FL unfriends him. You are left with more questions and confusion. It felt like it needed a second movie or just more time in general. It felt like the part of a movie where conflict was right before the resolution. Except, there was no resolution, just credits. This is a shame because the leads shared such amazing chemistry and tension. When I got to the ending I was genuinely confused, I was like "is this it? This is the ending? Credits are playing now?" it just felt so abrupt. Also at times, the leads in the same room during a video call did get a bit confusing, you'd think they are together but really have to look for the phone propped up or the background change.

Read More