The price of scam

Review of Inna Salazar and Dos Ocampo's "Ang Bagong Pamilya ni Ponching."

(Screengrab from Youtube.)

"Ang Bagong Pamilya ni Ponching" (Ponching's New Family) has quite an interesting premise. A slacker decides to make money via a text scam, unwittingly baiting a family that matches his fake narrative. For a comedy, the story bears endless comic possibilities. Sadly, the film fails to realize even half its potential.

The film works best when Ponching (Janus Del Prado) and Elmerson (Ketchup Eusebio) are goofing around with each other, endlessly scheming for money. For their respective roles, Del Prado and Eusebio were perfectly cast. There is no doubt these characters are the tightest of friends.

Which is why I am saddened when halfway through the film, the filmmakers resorted to mainstream plot devices to propel the story forward. At first, Ponching's new family are all wary of Ponching, save for Ariana (Lollie Mara), Ponching's supposed "aunt." The film then quickly makes a 360-degree shift, as all members of the family warm up to Ponching, while Ariana becomes the doubter. Even the cold-hearted grandmother lowers her defenses for Ponching.

(Screengrab from Youtube.)

By the second act up until the end, the film becomes one contrived setup after another: Ponching helps the grandmother deal with a former flame, for some reason the maid is always doing laundry, and; we get a stirring speech in the end that is meant to summarize the moral lesson. Like we did not already realize this, 30 minutes into the film.

The film falls apart because its characters are not characters, but mere caricatures. One family member is trying to be funny with a broken English (Mimi Juareza), while another is the designated snob (Jackie Lou Blanco). Even Odette Khan is underused as Ponching's mother, save for one scene in which Khan isn't even physically "present" in the frame.

(Screengrab from Youtube.)

In truest mainstream fashion, the film ends in a montage explaining what happened to the characters. We get it, crime doesn't pay and that conscience is a real killer. "Ang Bagong Pamilya ni Ponching" attempts to dissect the human side of deception through satire, and the intention is well-meaning. However, there is just no excuse for the poor visual execution of the story. Characters in this film spend lots of time telling us what they ought to do, when they should be doing it.