This year’s Second-Best Picture winner, UnMarry, is stripped of visual flair but packed with feels. It looks low-budget and, at times, rushed, as if it were shot in a very tight window. Still, the film is carried by a strong performance from Angelica Panganiban and manages to capture the messy realities of love, marriage and family, including how separation affects small children. It makes its point clearly: in some cases, ending a marriage is an act of self-preservation.

The story follows Celine (Angelica Panganiban) and Ivan (Zanjoe Marudo), two married people who develop an emotional affair while going through their own annulment cases. Celine is a café-bakery owner who wants to unmarry her controlling, narcissistic husband, Stephen (Tom Rodriguez). Ivan is a visual artist whose celebrity TV anchor wife, Maya (Solenn Heusaff), wants to unmarry him.

The film often feels rough around the edges. Written by long-time Quantum Films writer Chris Martinez with Therese Cayaba and directed by Jeffrey Jeturian, who took home Best Director at this year’s festival, the drama-comedy struggles to balance heavy subject matter with humor. Transitions come too quickly, cutting off moments before scenes have time to sink in.

Eugene Domingo plays the duo’s annulment lawyer, Atty. Jackie, and provides comic relief. The veteran actress feels like she’s on autopilot, breezing through a familiar role, but she remains effective. Her character is also a monetized content creator who explains Annulment 101, turning parts of the film into a mini seminar. The device works, especially for viewers curious about how annulment functions in the Philippines.

A rickety, faulty elevator is used repeatedly as a plot device to move the story along. One detail, however, is hard to ignore. Ivan says he has “severe” claustrophobia, yet continues to ride the elevator throughout the film. Claustrophobia is a fear of enclosed spaces, not simply a fear of being trapped, and people with severe claustrophobia usually avoid elevators altogether.

The writing stumbles elsewhere, too. Maya, with all her resources, jumps straight to annulment without the film considering whether Ivan’s alcoholism could have been treated first. Ivan is also written inconsistently. He is described as “dangerous” when drunk, yet appears mild-mannered in a bar scene with Celine despite being clearly intoxicated.

Most of the characters are painted in broad strokes. Celine is shown as the quiet and long-suffering victim, but the film offers little sense of the mental anguish she carries behind closed doors. Meanwhile, Ivan’s supposed artistic temperament is talked about rather than shown. His work jumps from pencil portraits and comic-book illustration to slick, surreal, gallery-ready paintings, making his artistic identity feel like a mere plot requirement.

Donna Cariaga, who plays Atty. Jackie’s secretary, has a thankless role as an overenthusiastic herbal-product seller. It’s cringey, but it clearly functions as obvious product placement. Rodriguez, meanwhile, appears to enjoy playing the villain. His performance is committed but tips into caricature, turning Stephen into a one-note bad guy.

The production overall feels rushed and undercooked. But what works is the film’s sincerity. It effectively captures how painful separation can be and how deeply it damages a family.

Its most compelling idea is the unspoken reality that even married people, or those already in relationships, can develop feelings for someone else. It’s uncomfortable, but it feels human and true. Even if the characters are underwritten, Jeturian makes the attraction feel real, with his camera lingering on fleeting glances, unspoken words, and hands that almost touch.

The simmering tension between Celine and Ivan, and the way they hold back until the annulment is finalized, is the film’s strongest conflict and emotional pull, especially given the strong onscreen chemistry between Panganiban and Marudo.

The film also uses a flashback montage set to a very emotional song. It’s manipulative and an overused trope in cinema, but paired with Panganiban’s luminous performance, it works. It left a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.

Overall, UnMarry is clunky in places, but it gets the feeling right.

3 out of 5 stars

UnMarry is one of the eight official entries in this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival and is showing in over 100 cinemas nationwide until 7 January.