Summary
With some lovable moments between the lead pair, Love is Colorblind is a watchable feel-good movie as a guilty pleasure.
This review of the Netflix film Love is Colorblind does not contain spoilers.
Love maybe be the most powerful emotion in this world. Love makes our lives worth living. Love is the thing that gives us hope in the darkest of hours. Love is the only thing that makes this world a beautiful place. From The Beetles ‘All You Need is Love’ to Wong Kar-wai’s ‘In the Mood for Love’, the need and the sense of belonging of love comes forward in the pop culture from time to time. Perhaps in the movie business, love stories are one of the most successful genres. But oftentimes these love stories become too cliched and pretentious that it doesn’t make any marks.
Netflix’s new release Love is Colorblind can be categorized as another cliched romantic comedy with a cliched story and characters. The highest-grossing Filipino film of last year, this film stars Donny Pangilinan and Belle Mariano in their first film together. Directed by John Leo D. Garcia, the film focuses on the love story between Cara and Ino and the ups and downs of their relationship. Ino becomes achromatopsic color-blind after facing a horrible accident, which also takes away his mom from him. He struggles with coping with that trauma and becomes broke. His long-time sweetheart Cara tries everything to help him in this situation. But things get complicated between them as Ino worries about being a liability for Cara.
Though the plot is cliched, I have to say that the motif of color used in the movie is quite impressive. The significance of color in our lives, how it affects our moods and worldviews, the film tries to deal with that in certain places. And, for that portion, it can be watchable with curiosity. With three beautiful songs placed perfectly in the context of the film’s narrative and some lovable moments between the lead pairs, the film can work in certain places as a feel-good thing after facing some despair in a day. But aesthetically, the film has a lot of loopholes that can’t be justified by guilty pleasures.
The screenplay drags with limited character arcs and some unnecessary slapstick humor. The key moments of the film are drably executed, which leads to a lack of connection to the film. The actors also can’t save this loss of connection with their acting, though I love Belle Mariano’s acting as bubbly, empathetic, and supportive Cara. In some places, she reminds me of Geet Dhillon from Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Jab We Met’. In my opinion, she is the most relatable character in the entire movie. But the other half of DonBelle (in Philipines Belle and Donny are called in that name), Donny Pangilinan has limited acting chops I would say. The psychological trauma and heartbreak that needs to come through his acting are missing. Also, the needed complexity in his character is missing from the writing itself which does not allow to flesh out the character as relatable and make us feel for him.
Though these setbacks, it can’t be denied Love is Colorblind is an enduring romantic comedy. It worked for me even as a guilty pleasure. And if you have a hard day with heartbreak and despair, you should definitely try this one out on Netflix.
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