“The film ultimately makes it harder for audiences to fully invest in the central love story it seeks to rekindle.”
Known for provocative films like Kinatay and historical dramas such as Taklub and Captive, Brillante Mendoza trades his usual intensity for something gentler in his latest drama, Until She Remembers — a story of companionship shaped by societal judgment. Framed through the perspective of a struggling high school student, the film follows Angel as she spends the summer with her grandmother Concha while her parents go through a separation. Under her grandmother’s care, Angel discovers that Concha once had a romance with another woman decades ago, prompting her to try to reunite the two.
Much of the film’s promotion emphasized its lack of a traditional script, allowing the actresses to carry scenes through improvisation and create their own dialogue. The approach proves to be a double-edged sword. While it may have worked in some of Mendoza’s earlier features, here it becomes detrimental, as scenes tend to meander and stretch longer than necessary. Awkward pauses and conversational gaps often lead nowhere, leaving moments that feel unfinished once they end. The absence of a script is also evident in the way characters enter and exit the story, often without much narrative weight.
The film makes an engaging effort in showing the romance between Concha and Catherine, in between lines of Pablo Neruda’s “Tonight I Can Write (The Saddest Lines)” and Skeeter Davis’ “End of the World” being played on loop. As literature is one thread that connected these two women when they were younger, the emphasis on it hammers the messaging of these scorned lovers judged by society. The issue, however, lies in the revelation that their relationship began as a student–teacher romance decades earlier, when Catherine was Concha’s teacher — a detail the film largely glosses over. By softening this aspect of the characters’ history, the film ultimately makes it harder for audiences to fully invest in the central love story it seeks to rekindle.
The film draws much of its energy from its trio of lead actresses sharing the spotlight. Charo Santos, who returned to acting a decade ago after a long hiatus, once again demonstrates why that comeback was a welcome one. Her character carries many of the emotional and physical demands of the film, and Santos delivers on both fronts. Boots Anson-Roa’s Catherine complements her performance with a quieter emotional presence, her character physically limited to a wheelchair throughout the film. Meanwhile, Barbie Forteza injects a youthful, spirited energy in her role as Angel, a neglected child who finds solace under her grandmother’s guidance.
On paper, Until She Remembers feels like a step forward for queer representation in Philippine cinema, particularly in its focus on an older female couple, something that is rarely depicted on screen. Yet the film is held back by the uncomfortable implications of its characters’ backstory — a detail that undermines many of the genuine moments it manages to build.