Daven Tamayo

'Mananambal' review: Nora Aunor's expressive eyes as intense as ever

Article (news)

Fred Hawson

<div><img src="https://od2-workbench-api.abs-cbn.com/api/upload-raw/20250221060240/41bd9e24-c7ee-4dba-9303-a2663678e5fc.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii" alt="Nora Aunor in &#x27;Mananambal&#x27;" style="width:960px"/>Nora Aunor in &#x27;Mananambal&#x27; </div>Lucia (Nora Aunor) was an elderly traditional healer who resided in Sitio Cambugahay, located in the mystical island province of Siquijor. She lived with her daughter Alma (Bianca Umali), who was expected to inherit her mother&#x27;s practice, but she never told anyone else that she had other dreams in mind. One day, a video showing Lucia healing a possessed young man was posted online on social media which soon became viral. Meanwhile, back in Metro Manila, a group of party-boy vloggers were watching Lucia&#x27;s video while drinking in a bar. Hungry for more followers, they went to Siquijor to interview Lucia for their #WitchHunt project. They were: former basketball player Riley (Edgar Allen Guzman), wealthy playboy Wade (Jeric Gonzales), their moody video editor Liam (Kelvin Miranda) and their effeminate cameraman Ethan (Martin Escudero).   Of course, National Artist for Film Nora Aunor is the main reason why people are going to watch this film. Her face had been deglamorized with dark blemishes on her right forehead and eyelids. Lucia was a stoic person of few words, so Aunor&#x27;s expressive eyes were as intense and captivating as ever as they conveyed her inner turmoil. She did not even need to utter a single word when she banished the evil spirit in that first scene.  Sharing the lead with Aunor was Bianca Umali, whom I am seeing onscreen for the first time. Her Alma also kept her thoughts and aspirations to herself, mostly just silently watching her mother at work or swimming by herself at the waterfalls. As a wide-eyed province girl, Alma wanted to see the world beyond the island, only to suffer for her naive curiosity. Umali held her own acting-wise, especially in that final scene of Alma with Lucia.As for the vloggers, they were portrayed as worldly, selfish, irresponsible and rude. EA Guzman and Jeric Gonzales had that &quot;player&quot; energy on full blast as Riley and Wade. Martin Escudero&#x27;s Ethan felt out of place in that gang. It was Kelvin Miranda who was given bigger acting moments as the more sensitive Liam. He was stuck editing videos for the other more popular boys only because he needed a free place to live in the city. This was a very familiar story about revenge with a supernatural twist, which was also really not new. The way director Adolfo Alix told this story was messy and disorganized, with several scenes that either went nowhere, or just came out from out of the blue. There were red herring scenes to obfuscate who was doing the revenge, then Alix had to repeat the kill scenes all over to spoon-feed the audience as if they were not smart enough to figure it out. I would have preferred if Alix had focused on the conflict between Lucia and Alma. When Alma experienced pain as Lucia was healing the voodooed boy, I thought that final showdown would be a battle between mother and daughter -- the power of benevolent healing against the power of wrathful revenge. Unfortunately, it did not happen that way, and instead we get an illogical shock ending. Alix wasted the elegant tragedy of that charged situation, and the talents of his actresses as well.This review was originally published in the author&#x27;s blog, “<a href="https://said-fred.blogspot.com/2025/02/review-of-mananambal-ritualistic-revenge.html">Fred Said</a>.”

National Artist for Film Nora Aunor is the main reason why people are going to watch this film.

National Artist for Film Nora Aunor is the main reason why people are going to watch this film.