Now Reading: Maybe you won’t like Jeffrey Jeturian’s ‘Unmarry’ (MMFF 2025)
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Maybe you won’t like Jeffrey Jeturian’s ‘Unmarry’ (MMFF 2025)
Maybe you won’t like Jeffrey Jeturian’s ‘Unmarry’ (MMFF 2025)
In the context of our culture as Filipinos in our media, we like things spicy, dramatic, over-the-top, loud, direct, and the likes. In short, we live for the drama, for the thrill of it all! Thus, watching Unmarry got me like: “oooh, are the Filipinos ready for this?” and like, “can masses appreciate such lengths of idleness, softness, and calmness?”
That is why I am here to discuss the following reasons why—maybe—you won’t like Jeturian’s MMFF 2025 entry, Unmarry.
Lack of Sampalan Scenes
I mean, come on now! Angelica Panganiban (Celine) is already a part of your roster and yet you did not utilize her for those kinds of scenes? But kidding aside, seeing her in a more tamed, neutral, and very naturally human role was refreshing.
You will see her afraid, broken, empty, revitalized, and finally empowered all throughout the course of the film… and this is actually an upgrade in her acting range because she can prove to us that she is “all that” of an actress! This kind of women representation in films is what we just needed—grey, perfectly imperfect, and nuanced.
So if you crave for a woman to hurt another woman over a man?! Well, (un)fortunately, you will not get that in this film, especially the next reason.
Too Real and Logical
Can you relate to that feeling where you feel like the character in the film you are watching is not listening to you? And that they always screw themselves over even though the plain obvious, crystal clear correct option is already right in front of them, auspiciously? Well, it seems like this film has ears because it listens to your wishes like a command.
Because really, I was about to hate Zanjoe Marudo’s character (Ivan) during the last moments of the film if he really will continue that course of action (not going to say anything more because SPOILERS!). Especially on Celine’s part, my goodness, it was a hard watch during that sequence to the point that I was cringing, praying, and wishing that she would act right! And oh yes ma’am did she and Ivan listened to me. Hallelujah!
Finally some film characters who are actually thinking. I hope more of them will follow through the next several years in our film industry because tropes are honestly tiring but oh well…
Discusses Annulment in Our heavily Catholic country
This can be anyone’s last straw, especially to those of pro-family people, because this film bravely tackles that matter in such a way that is unbiased, fair-and-square, and transparent. Some will say after watching this film that the annulment process is a waste of time, especially to the characters of Tom Rodriguez (Stephen) and Solenn Heusaff (Maya), and the worst thing that a child (Zac Sibug’s character, Elio) could experience… but do Celine and Ivan, and the rest of them really have a choice?
Of course, to comply, compromise, and suck it up are part of the choice to avoid annulment but the thing is: we do not know—most specifically in our real lives and world—what it is like to be in their homes. But that actually reveals a more political layer in this film because, indeed, to have a choice to end it all legally is such a privilege.
In this film, reeks of privilege (and political corruption) are spread out, all over the film, except for Celine’s family which is of Sharmaine Buencamino and Adrienne Vergara’s characters. And I have to applaud the whole team of this film for that because they appropriately, even for a short period of time, represented the voices of the marginalized people who cannot afford to go through such a process of annulment… and it is frightening, saddening, and depressing.
After watching this film, and considering the political climate of our country, a simple question instilled in my mind: “are we really ready for divorce?”
Final Words
Of course, for my own question, I would say “yes! 100%! Absolutely!” But this question is not for me to answer because obviously I am not a married person (seriously), and, just like annulment and divorce, only to those people who need and deserve to be granted that legal choice can answer that. And this film, Unmarry, is a successful one step—almost like a trial trigger, to be completely honest—towards the future of divorce and its discourse in the country.
After all, as a film, Unmarry does not deserve to be given a verdict, let alone an aesthetic evaluation for its spectators because I believe its main goal is to talk to us, to show and communicate to us the struggles of a failing marriage within a faulty system. Hoping that one day our state’s constitution can finally “unmarry” itself to the conservatively, traditionally skewed religious bodies.
