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Movie review: 'A Very Good Girl' offers quite a roller-coaster ride

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Fred Hawson

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Kathryn Bernardo in Petersen Vargas" s="" latest="" project="" Very="" Good="" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/news/09/27/review.jpg"/><figcaption>Kathryn Bernardo in Petersen Vargas&#x27;s latest project &#x27;A Very Good Girl&#x27; </figcaption></figure></div>Multimillionaire CEO of Mother Mall, Molly Suzara (Dolly De Leon) wanted very badly to own an ancient wooden figurine, willing to spend top money for it. However, a young woman named Philomena &quot;Philo&quot; Angeles (Kathryn Bernardo) had already beat her to the punch to buy the expensive item. As an annoyed Ms. Suzara hastened to leave the venue, Philo caught her at the door and gave the precious artifact to her as a gift. Such was the puzzling yet irresistible opening sequence of Petersen Vargas&#x27;s latest project &quot;A Very Good Girl.&quot; Told from the point of view of Philo, her backstory would go back five years ago, about how a mousy and miserable plain Jane with a sickly mother (Angel Aquino) named Mercedes &quot;Mercy&quot; Novela would evolve into the stylish and sophisticated Philomena Angeles, an angry young woman who had just set her elaborate scheme into action. Fresh from her high-profile success abroad with &quot;Triangle of Sadness&quot; (Ruben Östlund, 2022), veteran indie character actress Dolly de Leon is finally playing her very first lead role in a mainstream Filipino movie. De Leon delighted in chewing up the scenery with her flamboyantly bitchy, gleefully hypocritical, and sinisterly power-tripping big boss. Everything about Mother Molly was exaggerated and larger-than-life, and de Leon lived it up.Kathryn Bernardo more than matched de Leon&#x27;s acting passion in her complex character with two distinct personas. While playing Mercy was more within her comfort zone, Bernardo threw all caution to the wind to play seething, scheming Philo, a role against her usual type. When the title was first revealed in the opening credits, the audience actually erupted into applause when they heard something they&#x27;ve never heard Bernardo say before. For each of Philo&#x27;s encounters, Vargas switched up his storytelling style to make his stew even richer. With the mall&#x27;s image model Zab (Chie Filomeno), there was dark comedy. With Molly&#x27;s right-hand man Charles (Jake Ejercito), there was sexual intrigue. With Molly&#x27;s personal assistant Gene (Ana Abad Santos), there was family melodrama. With Molly herself, every scene was a showdown of sass, every word dripping with vindictive venom.Vargas also peppered the film with interesting minor characters to spice things up further. They elicited strong audience reactions, actually stealing their scenes. They include the comical matron Thea (Kakki Teodoro), the mysterious cripple Rigel (Kaori Oinuma) and the adorable jetset bulldog Noriah. This was quite a roller-coaster ride of a film with an over-the-top camp value, with haute coutue dresses and high society production design all the way. This review was originally published in the author&#x27;s blog, &quot;<a href="https://said-fred.blogspot.com/2023/09/review-of-very-good-girl-showdown-of.html">Fred Said</a>.&quot;

Kathryn Bernardo more than matched Dolly de Leon's acting passion in her complex character in Petersen Vargas's latest project 'A Very Good Girl.'