There’s something magical about director and screenwriter Crisanto B. Aquino’s ‘My Future You.’ It’s a film about the complexities of family but disguised as a magical romance story about a boy and a girl who are matched through a dating app despite their difference in time. There are elements here of the Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock film ‘Lake House’ or other films with similar conceits like ‘Frequency’ and the Korean supernatural thriller ‘The Call.’ But Aquino’s film is deeply rooted in its Filipino setting and characters and redefines our understanding of what defines a family through the perspective of the two leads.
Lex (Seth Fedelin) and Karen (Francine Diaz) are both fresh out of college with their lives ready to be conquered. As they both watch a rare twin comet sighting in the night sky one evening, they suddenly receive a dating app on their phones and laptops and are instantly matched. They talk, they flirt, they connect. It comes to a point that they decide to meet each other in Manila at kilometer zero at Luneta Park. On the given time, Lex discovers that Karen isn’t there. He waits for three hours but she never arrives. The next morning, he gets an angry call from Karen who tells him that he stood her up. Soon, they discover that they both were there at the agreed date and time. What they did not expect was the revelation that they live 15 years apart from each other. Lex is from 2009 while Karen is from 2024.
Aquino masterfully handles the first 20 minutes of the film to set up Lex and Karen’s meet-cute and the bonding that happens over time. The whole first act makes us fall in love with these two young people – performed with such verve from Fedelin and Diaz – that you get caught up in the whole romance. As someone who knew nothing about the film coming in, I was suspicious but still taken by surprise by the magical twist of the time difference that forms the barrier to the couple coming together. What’s even more clever is that during this time, the film had already begun to lay the foundations of the real goal of the film, which is to push the two youths into reimagining their family structure.
Lex is an only child of senior parents in Cebu. They are wealthy and while he wants for nothing and is loved by both and his yaya, his past has left a missing piece in his heart. Karen, on the other hand, is unhappy that her parents have split up and that their mom had moved her and her younger brother to live with her new boyfriend. The 15 years difference between Karen and Lex means that both can help each other with their issues of their family.
The romance aspect of the film is easy. The two characters have fallen for each other and it’s believable by the way Aquino directs their interactions using split screens and shooting them with match cuts to show that they are completely in synch even if they are 15 years away from each other. Vanessa De Leon’s editing is precise and on the mark allowing the two to be in the same moment despite their distance. The music by Decky Jazer Margaja is just perfect as it sets the mood from romantic to drama when the scene calls for it. The family drama opens up organically within the romance story and surprisingly takes center stage and the whole second act of the film as they two learn some valuable lessons about love and family and happiness.
Diaz is absolutely charming and she has a screen presence that calls for your attention. There are moments when she can sometimes over dramatize a feeling but when she uses restraint, there’s magic there. With more experience, she has the makings of a star. Fedelin, on the other hand, is a natural actor. Everything he does feel spontaneous and unscripted. He has a warmth that translates through the screen and he can easily shift from comedy to serious drama when needed. The two are electric together.
The supporting cast of Bodjie Pascua, Peewee O’Hara, Christian Vasquez, and Almira Muhlach help make this world so believable and authentic despite its magical realism setting. There are no out of place dramatics. It’s just simple and natural performances that makes these characters come alive.
‘My Future You’ is a lovely mainstream movie that is filled with the magic of love and warmth. It’s a perfect movie for the MMFF that really fits in with the Christmas spirit and, more importantly, I love the way that it normalizes non-traditional family structures.
My Rating:
My Future You is now showing in cinemas. Check showtimes and buy your tickets here.
