This is a movie review of Never Not Love You.

 

Viva Films’ and Project 8 Corner San Joaquin Projects’ Never Not Love You is a movie with grit – lots of it. Never Not Love You is directed by Antoinette Jadaone and stars James Reid and Nadine Lustre, known as Jadine to their legion of fans. This director-loveteam relationship goes to where others fear to tread, and the result is intriguing to say the least.

Never Not Love You is about the love story of Gio Smith (James Reid), a freelance graphic artist who moonlights as a tattooist, and Joanne Candelaria (Nadine Lustre), an up-and-coming ad person with a five-year plan.

Gio and Joanne meet in Squid Ink, the tattoo parlor where Gio works. Gio hits on Joanne but she puts him in his place. Things change when she needs to ride his motorbike in the middle of the night to get back to the office and placate her boss, Miss Bing (Sharmaine Suarez). From then on, Gio makes it a habit to be Joanne’s personal driver and meal companion. With the amount of time they spend with each other, Joanne decides it is high time to introduce Gio to her family, even if only as a friend.

In the middle of a grassland, Gio and Joanne share their intimate thoughts, and in the middle of a lake, they share their dreams with each other. It is only a matter of time when they officially become a couple. Good times roll as they eat in a convenience store, dance in walkways with Sugarfree’s Prom in the background (I am loving this song now), ride a bike in the streets of Metro Manila, which culminate in Joanne moving in with Gio (mostly for practical reasons).

Their relationship hits a snag when Gio receives an opportunity to work in London. The offer is tempting but the Amboy (Filipino-American) Gio is heads over heels in love with the probinsyana Joanne that he wants her to be with him in London or they stay where they are, as long as they “fucking stay together”.

Joanne is in a quandary. She is offered to be an assistant brand manager, which makes her on track with her five-year plan to be a brand manager, yet she also wants to be with her love.

Never Not Love You will not be in vogue if Gio and Joanne do not have scenes in London, so they pack their bags and fly there. While Gio settles in London quite magnificently, Joanne starts at the bottom of the totem pole and becomes a waitstaff at a café. The reversal of fortunes does not bode well with her and causes her unhappiness and insecurity. After a heated argument, Joanne leaves Gio in the cold (quite literally, too). Will this be the end of Gio and Joanne’s love story? Is there really no forever and love is just full of bullshit?

Never Not Love You is a Filipino loveteam movie like no other. Aesthetically, there are no rainbows and butterflies in this film but it has a lot of dark undertones. The aesthetics go well with the theme, a modern love with all the complexities that come with loving someone other than one’s self. This does not mean that there are no romantic gestures in this movie. The “you and me” and “ikaw at ako” tattoos are romantic. Gio arriving unannounced at Joanne’s office is romantic (towards the end of the movie). These sweet acts just do not happen with a song and dance number.

Never Not Love You tackles serious real life issues that most members of the Generation Z (or iGeneration) face. Yes, I wrote Gen Z and not millennials. First, Joanne is a breadwinner who has to consider her younger siblings when she decides to live with Gio and later on, to move to London with only a prayer in her heart. Being the financial provider of the family is not sugarcoated in the movie. Joanne’s conversations with her mother (Yayo Aguila) are affectionate but usually involve money or the lack thereof. Second, Joanne proves that hard work beats the seal on one’s diploma. Joanne has goals and the only hindrance she sees is not graduating from the big three (University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, and De La Salle University), but she overcomes that and succeeds in becoming assistant brand manager eventually. In relation to Joanne’s five-year plan, she has to choose between work and Gio. She knows that whatever she chooses, a part of her will be regretful. Third, Gio and Joanne live together. Living together in this day and age is frowned upon and women, more than men, bear the stigma of “living in sin”. Never Not Love You shows living together but not in a degrading manner. These issues make the movie current, real, and relatable.

With the subject matters presented in Never Not Love You, among their contemporaries, Reid and Lustre are the best choices to portray Gio and Joanne, respectively. They have the air of maturity that makes me believe that their Gio and Joanne have seen and experienced things – things that are not fit for fairytales. If there is not-so-glowing that I have to say about Reid, it is the way he pauses intermittently when he delivers his lines, English lines included, in the first half of the film. It seems like he either runs out of air or his cadence is just normally off. It is a distraction that takes a lot away from the scenes. With Lustre, her Joanne is a well-written character with a lot of layers, but her almost singular facial expression for sadness and happiness is dismaying.

Never Not Love You neither made me laugh nor cry, but I watched it in rapt silence. I saw an unapologetic work of fiction imitating real life unfold before my very eyes – a life of choices and their consequences, of a modern love story and its heroes, and of love that is years in the making.

For a related entry, please read Never Not Love You – Hugot Edition.