Movie Review: The Write Moment is a Clever, If Slight Exploration of Pinoy Rom-Coms

TL;DR: The Write Moment is a goofy, enjoyable riff on romantic comedies that doesn’t explore the darkness of its premise.

Releasing The Write Moment in the current climate feels perfect. Audiences are more savvy about the established formula of hugot romantic comedies, & are more willing to watch romantic films that are more introspective & mature than the usual fluffy fare, which means now would be the perfect time to release a film that explores the genre’s tropes. While The Write Moment aims to riff on this beloved genre & examine our attraction to it, it fails to live up to its expectations.

Dave (Jerald Napoles) is a wedding videographer who aspires to be a writer. After his longtime girlfriend Joyce (Valeen Montenegro) dumped him, he tries his best to woo her back, which includes writing a hugot romantic comedy. Due to unknown reasons, he’s forced to live out the script he wrote verbatim, or else he’ll be stuck in an endless time loop.

It’s a film that positions itself between the cheery romantic comedies people are familiar with & the more thoughtful romantic dramas that have become popular nowadays. It’s a goofy, Groundhog Day-esque riff to explore the artifice of romantic comedies & how Dave’s inability to move on becomes a literal force he has to reckon with. His hacky script is unrealistic with how humans are supposed to interact, so now he has to find a way to achieve what’s written in order to move forward.

It’s a clever & playful conceit with troubling implications & it’s disappointing The Write Moment doesn’t explore them. There’s a darker movie to be made here about Dave’s selfish impulses & this magical scenario has put him in control of other people’s lives, but the film chooses to elide this in favor of a story about moving on from a break-up. It’s still an enjoyable romantic comedy that never loses its charms until the end, & both Jerald Napoles & Valeen Montenegro prove they both deserve to break out of supporting roles they’re usually given, but the whole movie ends up feeling more modest than it should’ve. The Write Moment may have come at the right time, but it doesn’t take advantage of it.