RISELDA Volks looked so pretty when we interviewed her for “Kaleldo (Summer Heat)” and it seems she has recovered from her tumultuous breakup with Cris Villanueva.

“Oh yes, I've moved on,” she says. “I'm much happier now with my new boyfriend from Europe . He's very rich and has given me my own capital to start my own business.”

Is it true her boyfriend frequents casinos and loses millions in one night? “Yes. Nanghihinayang nga ako when he loses millions. Sana , ibinigay na lang sa akin. He plays not only here but also in Hong Kong and Macau casinos.”

In the hotel where they stayed in Macau , she met Chinese superstar Chow Yun Fat by chance. “I was in the lobby and his group just arrived. Paalis naman ako. Pinahabol ako sa isang assistant niya and they want to meet me raw. Kaso, sa totoo lang, hindi ko siya kilala, so hindi ako na-kipagkilala and went straight to my appointment. It's only later na nalaman ko how big a star he is not only in Asia but in Hollywood .”

She also got an offer from a producer to appear in a porno film. “He'd pay raw a million dollars, pero ayoko nga.”

In “Kaleldo,” she did a lesbian love scene with Cherry Pie Picache where she's the aggressive partner. “It's one of the most daring things I did because I'm even shown kissing her feet. Before we even shot, binibiro-biro ko na si Ms. Pie pero parang diring-diri siya. Manang na manang pala ‘yon. I told her it's my pleasure na maamoy at malasahan ang paa niya.” Was she really turned on? “No. Pareho kaming hindi naman totong lesbians, so I told her to just go with the flow. And we went on caressing and loving each other kaya erotic ang da-ting, but very tasteful and artistic. I'm really proud to be part of this film now being shown in various filmfests abroad.”

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THE REAL PROBLEM WITH ‘TXT'

THIS is a letter from Helen Manaloto of helen_manaloto@yahoo.com about “Txt”.

“Ang dami kong reviews na nabasa na pinupuri ang TXT, pero not enough daw para makakuha ng A rating sa (Cinema Evaluation Board) CEB. Masyadong over-rated daw. Another case of Mulawin ba ito?

Parang nilangaw nga ang TXT. Nasayang lang sina Angel and Dennis sa movie. Sana romantic-drama na lang ang ‘Sukob' na mega ganda. At nakakapagtakang B rating lang ang nakuha nito sa CEB.

Imbes na makatulong ang A rating ng CEB sa ta-kilya sa TXT, naging nega pa ito. And yung fans nina Dennis at Angel, disappointed dahil lumabas na support lang sila sa movie kay Oyo, kaya mga nawalan ng interes manood. What can you say?” Helen Manoloto

In answer to Helen, when it comes to technical values, there's no doubt that “Txt” is much better than average. With regards to the acting, the stars give uniformly fine performances. Angel Locsin gives a sterling portrayal of the distressed heroine, Joyce, a caregiver terro-rized by her boyfriend from hell through text messages. Dennis Trillo is also adequate as her supportive best friend. But it's really Oyo Sotto who's most effective in the villainous role of the abusive rich boyfriend-turned-vengeful ghost.

The film's main weakness is in its script that's really full of holes that other reviewers ignored but which we noted in a previous column. When we saw one of its writers, Paul Daza (his co-writer is his sister, Penny, who's the wife of the director, Mike Tuviera), by chance at the Ateneo, he asked me what holes we're referring to. We told him we'll write about it in a future column and here it is.

The first thing difficult to accept in the movie is the main concept itself where the ghost scares people through text messages. This is not original since this has been used in the Korean movie, “The Phone,” and in the Japanese movie, “One Missed Call.” Honestly, it's so simple to solve this problem: just stop reading the text messages. But the characters just keep on reading them. In that scene where Angel is in a jeepney and her phone rings, all the other passengers look at her like she's committing a big sin for not answering her phone. Angel could have just gotten the phone from her bag and threw it out of the vehicle.

In the succession of killings made by Oyo, his first victim was carinderia owner Eugene Domingo, followed by the old woman in the hospice Perla Bautista, and then Angel's friend, Julia Clarete. Their crime? They said something against Oyo. But don't you think that, logically, Oyo's first victim should be Dennis since Dennis is the biggest threat in his relationship with Angel? But since Dennis is a bigger star than Eugene, Perla, and Julia, he is reserved for the movie's climax.

It's also noticeable that after Eugene and Perla are murdered, the cops are not even shown making an investigation of any sort. It's as if such strange deaths happen everyday. When the police are finally introduced in the movie, they are portrayed as biased law enforcers who only work for the rich after Bing Loyzaga (as Oyo's mom who's ‘acting na acting' here) ordered them to arrest Angel for trespassing. And not only that, they're also portrayed as very corrupt. You can easily bribe them with a cellphone. When Julia gets killed and the cop who Angel bribed appeared on the scene, he is not even shown making any inquiry about what happened on the crime scene. By this time, the movie has lost its momentum and we have also lost interest in it. Just like Helen, we start asking: How come it got an A?

It's not only the cops who are made to look like fools but also Julia's parents. Julia is screaming wildly in her room but Angel even have a hard time waking her parents up to help save her. To begin with, we cannot understand why Julia did not confide to her parents that she's facing grave danger when her parents can help watch over her in her room. Really stupid, isn't it?

We also find Angel so dumb in that she knows her dead boyfriend is haunting her and yet she still hides in his very own dark closet in his room. It's likewise so daft of her to return to Bing's house even after she got arrested for trespassing. She should have taken everything she needed the first time she went there.

Another thing we cannot explain is: what exactly is the role of Dante Rivero?

Usually, this kind of character in mystery films helps explain the strange occurrences the leads experience, just like Joonee Gamboa who shed light about Lotus Feet in Chito Roño's much more scary “Feng Shui.” But here, Dante's role was not really of much help in solving the mystery. Truth is, he looks like another stupid character who does not even know the meaning of the word “umbra.” He is shown opening so many books all strewn on the floor while searching for its meaning.

What's funny is that he finally finds it in a simple dictionary. And it means “anino” or shadow. From there, he concludes that Oyo will possess the body of Dennis to accomplish whatever it is he wants to accomplish on Angel. How he got that information from the learning the meaning of “umbra” is never explained at all.

As it is, we also can't comprehend why Oyo still has to possess Dennis' body when in a previous scene, he is shown that he does need anyone's body to hurt other people.

This is when Dennis regains consciousness after he and Angel had an accident and he sees Oyo, presumably still a spirit, sitting beside him on the front seat. He and Oyo converse and Oyo then tries to strangle him. So, if he is already that powerful as a spirit, why does he still have to possess Dennis for the final shot showing a ghostly Dennis terrorizing Angel? We also find this kind of conclusion difficult to accept as it shows the diabolical Oyo winning in the end. Is it just okay with you to watch a movie where evil triumphs?

Honestly, we didn't find the movie successful in scaring us. It does not have much of the boo moments that jolt people like in “Sukob,” another non-sensical film but, at least, the viewers got frightened and made it a big hit due to word-of-mouth endorsement. Here, we can't even understand why the scavengers or garbage men who told Angel about Eugene 's death have such an expensive cellphone. They appear like they're just really eagerly waiting for Angel and Dennis to ask them so they can quickly show them their cellphone. It would have been more credible if the one who supplied this information are the call center employees who also eat in the carinderia. At least, viewers won't be raising their eyebrows even if they have expensive cellphones.

That “Txt” didn't do as well as expected at the tills is not surprising. Previous local films with reference to texting in their titles also flopped, like “Love Text” with Judy Ann Santos and “Message Sent” with Onemig Bondoc. Pinoys love to text.

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