Film review: Sid & Aya (Not A Love Story)

Make no mistake about it: Despite the disclaimer in its title that it is “not a love story,” Sid & Aya most definitely is one. It is just not that kind of love story.

The title characters are played by Dingdong Dantes and Anne Curtis, respectively, supposed to be poles apart. Sid is a hotshot stockbroker who makes big deals and drives around in a Maserati. Aya is a working girl always in need of money for her family and thus juggles three jobs.

Sid, in spite of the trappings of success, including the favors of a society girlfriend (in a voiceover, his character declares that in the stock brokerage business, it’s not “just what you ride, but who you ride”), feels empty. Orphaned early, he feels he works for no one, and is prone to extended bouts of insomnia. It is in one of his nocturnal perambulations where he meets Aya, in a coffee shop where she works. She boldly strikes up a conversation with him to find out what kind of work he does in order to win a bet; he is soon taken by her quirky charms, and befriends her. In one of their idle chats, Sid offers her money to stay with him all night. Initially repelled by such an unorthodox request (“hindi ako pokpok!”), he clarifies that he only wants someone to talk to, and nothing else. Taking pity on someone so totally friendless that he would pay for company, and needing funds herself, she assents. And that, to paraphrase a line in Casablanca (1942), was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Or was it just that? The movie, unlike Lost In Translation (2003) or Before Sunrise (1995), is unambiguous. Sid falls in love