by Butch Francisco
Philippine Star
September 6, 2008

"Boses", an entry in the recent Cinemalaya competition, is a heart-tugging drama about a teacher-pupil relationship. No, it's not anything like George Arliss' The Man Who Played God of the early 1930s. Based on Jules Eckert Goodsman's play The Silent Voice, The Man Who Played God casts Arliss as concert pianist who loses his hearing when a bomb intended to kill the king of England is detonated very near him. To make his life still worth living, he trains a young student (Bette Davis), who in time falls for him despite their age gap. But no, Boses isn't like that. Neither is it anything like George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (with Professor Henry Higgins tutoring Eliza Doolittle), which became the musical My Fair Lady.

Boses, however, has a lot of music in it too-just like My Fair Lady. Music, in fact, is a key element in Boses because it is the story of a violinist named Ariel(played by the famous and international award-winning violinist himself Coke Bolipata)who gives hope to the battered young boy Onyok (Julian Duque).

The film opens with the kid's drunkard of a father (Ricky Davao) getting arrested for child abuse. The boy is then brought to a center run by Cherry Pie Picache. Although Picache and her staff treat the children well, the center is still no paradise for the young wards because some kids can be cruel and they bully the weaker and smaller ones. This is Onyok's new Calvary in life and to escape from that he hides inside the cabinet of Ariel's house, which is also located within the center's compound.

Ariel and Onyok are kindred spirits. Both are badly wounded and bruised. Onyok-from the cigarette burns and repeated beatings inflicted on him by his father (the boy had also ceased to talk-maybe due to trauma or a physical object rammed down his throat during one of his father's violent moments). Emotionally, of course, he is also battered-given his abusive father and an equally irresponsible mother who abandoned him.

Ariel, on the other hand, couldn't recover from a love lost. The pain he feels is understandable, except that I can't relate the circumstances here because it's better if you see everything unfold before your eyes on the screen (but that may take a while because the film doesn't open until practically end of the year-although I swear it's going to be worth the wait).

Through music, they both heal. Ariel finds a gifted child Onyok and this is how their relationship as teacher-pupil begins. But life is not an eternal concerto where music can make us forget our problems. In the case of Onyok, he may have found refuge in playing the violin, but he still has to deal with his personal family problems at the end of the day.

What I like best about BOSES is its over-all scenario that there is nothing perfect in life-not even near perfect. That there is no heaven on earth- because there really isn't, is there?

Even in the center that provides shelter for abused children, Picache, the person in charge, admits that their system is not fool-proof and that they are still learning along the way on how to better address the problems of the children.

The characters in the story are also flawed, which is how we all are in real life. for a while, I thought that the part being played by Picache was Miss Perfect. She is kind, sympathetic and compassionate. But no, it turns out she is also given to anger and makes her real.

If there is anything that comes to near perfection-as a film that is-I'd say it is Boses. The only technical aspect that bothers me a bit in the movie, in fact, is the production design that I sometimes find a bit too pretty. But then, prettifying the sets has its purpose, too. This is to balance things out so that we are not just engulfed in the ugliness of this world.

Graded A by the Cinema Evaluation Board (CEB), it is one of the best films of the year. Director Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil has a full grip of the material (screenplay is by Froilan Medina and Rody Vera) and she handles it with great care and injects into it a lot of creativity.

Although it's one movie that would make you weep from beginning to end (warning: bring a bundle of hankies with you), the director doesn't manipulate you by staging overly dramatic scenes that exploit the tragic situation of the kid Onyok. In fact, scenes of brutality in the hands of his father are only shown in flashback and are very short. I don't know what device Marfil uses to make the lachrymal glands work, but she succeeds at making everyone cry and the viewers' tear ducts function practically during the entire run of the movie.

I guess it also helps that Marfil found the right actors to play the key characters in the story. The role of the violinist Ariel actually was originally intended for an established actor. But it had to be an actor who could pass himself off as a cellist (that was what was in the original script) in parts that call for him to play the musical instrument and not rely on the so-called "spaghetti arms" (when a real musician takes over in tight shots and you see only the arms or hands playing).

Since Bolipata was doing the musical direction anyway, Marfil thought of offering him the acting job(the cellist had to be changed to a violinist in the story)-and he accepted. Good thing he did because scenes that show him playing the violin (and these are crucial to the story) give so much authenticity to the film. As an actor, you notice Bolipata's discomfiture in some sequences (especially in his love scenes with Meryl Soriano-the love of his life), but under his director's guidance, he manages to give a good enough performance. Of course, he is at his best in the scenes where he plays the violin. No one could have done those better.

And with Bolipata serving as the film musical director,how can you go wrong with this technical aspect? Boses will be a runaway winner for Best Music in next year's awards derbies.

As for Bolipata's young co-star, Julian, he is brilliant as an actor. In real life, he is one of Bolipata's prized violin students. But where is the fairness in this world? When God distributed talents to all of mankind in this world it seems that Julian got a bigger share than the rest of us. He is not only a gifted violinist, he is a remarkable actor as well. In Boses, even if he doesn't have speaking lines, you see his pain and joys etched all over his face and frail body.

The two acting veterans in the film-Davao and Picache-as expected gave terrific performances as well. Picache is reliable as always, but Davao gets to have a scene where he truly stands out. It is the part where he becomes repentant and for all the evil deeds he does to his own kid, your heart still goes out to him and this is another plus factor for the film because we don't see any black - and white characters anywhere - and this is again how it is in real life.

Boses also stresses the fact that there are no easy things on this earth. Even if Onyok is gifted as a musician, he has to work hard for it and has to have discipline, which is difficult to instill in him given his age and circumstances.

There are a lot more lessons to be learned in Boses. When it is finally shown, my only hope is for all its messages to be heard.