Meritorious filmmaker Brillante Ma. Mendoza justify his vehemence in crafting nonetheless powerful tales like Thy Womb, a movie challenged by superficiality and narrative simplicity. Set in the southwestern extremities of the Philippines, the pictures pivots around an infertile couple (Nora Aunor and Bembol Roco) who mutually seeks an opportunity to have a child. Because adaption has turned out no luck, husband Bangas-An suggests to his barren wife Shaleha to arrange him marriage to a child-bearing wife.
Her star power is forever stark as her prowess in the craft is quintessential. Aunor, as she gives a quietly immersive performance, receives strong support from Roco and Lovi Poe (Guni-Guni). The latter, portraying the prospective wife, is given a towering howsoever underdeveloped character. Notwithstanding this, Poe surprisingly makes a polish performance well-nigh comparable with what her superiors have made.
The movie wears a fairly thin script. Instead of delving deeper on the ethnicity's issues, the movie stayed focus on the couple's plight. This is, however, an insurance wisely taken for reasons in the later parts of the film are revealed. The pacing is very much sedate and tranquil; and depending on one's sensibilities (and patience), the movie might feel a very bit draggy. The wait for the scrupulously executed end is compensated with Mendoza's spectacular images; shifting bit rates and color shades further intensify the movie.
Mendoza's ethnographic drama is laudable for all its possible merits. It abides with what it wants to achieve from the start and then end in such powerful fashion. Heartbreaking, authentic and expertly executed, Thy Womb is a substantial work that everyone shall dare not miss.
This is me ignoring the 'inappropriate' title for the film; I took it as a wonderful irony. It's all in how you work it in your head, dear readers.
VERDICT: A-
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