Darryl Yap's signature vulgar humor is still prominent in his latest film with Viva Films, the drama-comedy Para Kang Papa Mo. But here, he carries the torch of Viva's recent brand of melodramatic commercial offerings aimed at pleasing the masses. Overly sentimental, it's like the sister film of another recent Viva drama, the cloying Instant Daddy.

Papa is pegged as a father-and-son drama amid an impoverished life in Olongapo. It features the '90's Gwapings and today's Hashtags. 

The dad, Anton (Mark Anthony Fernandez), is an inmate who only meets his transgender son, Harry James Potter (Nikko Natividad), after he is released on parole. By this time, Harry (who prefers to be called Hermione), is already graduating from high school.

Love and sacrifice are big themes in Papa and Yap capitalizes on poverty for the drama — but he crams it all in in the last few minutes of the movie, accentuated by the crescendo-building "Pag-ibig Lang" theme song belted dramatically by Mark Bautista.

The drama culminates in a Vincentiments-like monologue —  with the director's signature split editing — to squeeze out the big tears from the audience, which unfortunately does not work for everybody. I was left dry-eyed.

Poverty is often talked about but not shown. There are no nitty-gritty depictions of real-life struggles here, just broad, generic narrative strokes.

The tale is never boring but lacks tension and build-up. Yap also loses focus of the father-and-son drama. Anton and Hermione do not spend a lot of time together to catch up for real and get to know each other on a deeper level, hence preventing us from caring about the father, the son and their relationship.

Spotlight

Yap instead puts the spotlight on Hermione's guardian, Tita, played by Ruby Ruiz, who gives one of the year's best performances as a cuss-spewing Virgin Mary devotee. Tita, although her onscreen presence is truly welcome, overshadows the story of Anton and Hermione.

Religion and spirituality frequently permeate Yap's body of work, and Papa is no exception. There is one scene where an Iglesia Ni Cristo house of worship becomes the focus in the background while Tita, in the foreground, wields a gun, along with an ambiguous voice-over narration. One wonders if Yap's visual euphemisms here are meant to ruffle the Church's feathers?

Ruiz also negotiates with a wooden crucified Christ as she takes her Lord's mother (Virgin Mary) "hostage." Yap tries to squeeze out tears and laughter here as Ruiz transitions from comedy to full-blown drama where she cries her heart out inside the church, Jowable-like, begging for a "swap" of lives. 

Her character, like a blind follower, believes that her inanimate graven image of the Virgin Mary is the actual mother of Christ. This is too bizarre to be funny or moving — even for the most dogma-ignorant Catholics — as humor or satire should still be hinged on logic to be able to work. 

The film is washed in an orange-blue palette, but it looks more like an Instagram filter, with a doctor's coat, for instance, turning sky-blue. Other than that, the production design is overall eye-pleasing — rich with colorful costumes, murals and graffiti.                                                       

There are a few head-scratching moments. For one, an end-stage kidney-failure patient looks perky and lucid in a hospital, when he should be hooked on dialysis and other machines at the ICU and barely functioning. It's hard to apply suspension of disbelief here.

 The short runtime also feels wasted on lengthy side gags (including a full ditty on a sexual act) that have nothing to with the story or character development. 

Apart from Ruiz, the rest of the cast are mere stock characters injected with family values. The upside is that the performances here are not as over-the-top compared to Yap's previous work, the histrionics thankfully dialed down a notch to attempt a more conversational tone in dialogue.

Papa rushes toward its "explosive" ending without caring much for dramatic nuances and details. It has more frills than substance and is more concerned about the emotionally manipulative final destination than the journey getting there. 

2 out of 5 stars
Now showing in cinemas