BROMANCE: Low-brow comedy with a difference
IT USED to be called “buddy film,” screen glorification of male bonding at its strongest. “Buddy” later gave way to “bro,” which some shrewd wordsmith fused with “romance.” So now we have “bromance” – new label, same gooey stuff.
Westerns provided a rich source of bromance. The “Davy Crockett” and “Lone Ranger” compilations were early examples of the homosocial relationship between the hero and his sidekick.
The quintessential bromance is “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” the saga of two affable outlaws whose friendship weathers one misadventure after another.
Bromance isn’t always confined to macho types like gung-ho Marines or bulked up football linebackers. In the bromantic comedy, “The Odd Couple,” Walther Matthau and Jack Lemmon are middle-aged, out-of-shape guys locked in an emotional tug-of-war.
“Bromance: My Brother’s Romance” is Skylight Films’ take on this subgenre (if you can call it that). As the title broadly hints, the subjects are brothers. Not just brothers, mind you, but twins. It gets zanier: One twin, Brando, is a fine masculine specimen, the other, Brandy, is unflinchingly gay.
Playing both Brando and Brandy is Zanjoe Marudo, who is thrust into the lead role for the very first time.
Even when they were kids, Brando and Brandy never hit it off. Brandy almost always spoiled things up for Brando. They carried the animosity over to adulthood, much to the dismay of their mother (Arlene Muhlach). Brandy builds up a successful career as an interior designer, while Brando makes a career out of being a bum. His negativity gets the better of him and he eventually loses his girl, Erika (Cristine Reyes), who flies off to America. After a big fight with Brandy, Brando leaves home and sets up a car repair shop to prove that he can make it on his own.
Mother persuades Brandy to make peace with Brando, but alas, Brandy is run over by an ambulance. Before slipping into a coma, Brandy exacts a promise from his twin to assume his identity to keep his business from folding up.
Brando grudgingly agrees and gets a crash course from Brandy’s associates on how to speak, act and dress gay.
Brando struggles with his disguise but somehow manages to convince Brandy’s biggest client, who has hired the designer to make over his columbarium for a cool P3 million.
Things get muddled up when Erika suddenly returns and mistakes Brando for Brandy. Brando has to summon all his will power to restrain himself from grabbing Erika and making wild love to her.
Brando keeps up the charade, but sinks deeper into his problems. The rent on his car shop is long overdue, and his landlady threatens to padlock it unless he pays up. She, however, is willing to write off Brando’s debt if he marries her.
Brandy’s client, meanwhile, is getting impatient over the slow work on his columbarium and is on the verge of calling off the deal. And Brando can’t wait to shed his disguise and win back Erika.
Brandy, meanwhile, slips out of his coma only to find his business in near collapse after being mishandled by his twin.
At this point, the mess looks like it is beyond mending. But we’re talking comedy here, so it’s only fitting that the twins patch up, Brando narrowly escapes getting married to his landlady and exchanges wedding vows instead with Erika.
Dual roles present a tough challenge to any actor, particularly if they portray twins with clashing personalities. Eugene Domingo succeeded in being both the mean Kimmy and the kind but dimwitted Dora in “Kimmy Dora.”
Skylight Films, the indie film division of Star Cinema, must have taken a leap of faith in casting Zanjoe Marudo as Brando/Brandy. But Zanjoe definitely did not disappoint. He switched from one role to another as effortlessly as a chameleon.
“Bromance: My Brother’s Romance” is unabashedly campy. There are no cerebral affectations; this is lowbrow comedy. The surprising thing is that it works.
Director Wenn Deramas has a long line of films that are hugely successful in the box office but are monumental disappointments as comedy. “Praybeyt Benjamin” and “Petrang Kabayo” immediately come to mind. But once in a while, Deramas surprises us with such offerings as “Sisterakas,” and now, “Bromance: My Brother’s Romance.: