The Gifted

 

This novel is about two school girls with exceptional intelligence: Aica Tabayoyong (Cristine Reyes), meek and poor who has an oversize nose, lots of pimples, bushy eyebrows, and buck teeth; and, Zoe Tuazon (Anne Curtis), an obese rich unica hija. They both go to the same school, St. Therese of Avila, and both excel in theirclasses. In recitation, the girls always give the best answers – leaving their classmates and teachers with gaping mouths from astonishment and disbelief. 

 

But twin events beyond their control turn them into bullied outcasts. This leads the two girls to become close friends to the point of being “partners in crime” for various pre-meditated misdeeds against their classmate bullies. Until jealousy and envy set in and turn them into fierce rivals for class topnotcher. Specifically, Zoe cannot accept that Aica always emerges on top. So she sets out to unseat her friend with the help of a classmate, a handsome but dim-witted hunk named Mark. 

 

Zoe makes an offer to Mark that he is not able to resist – he will pretend to court Aica and thereby distract her from her studies so that her grades will fall. In exchange Zoe will do all of Mark’s school assignments to ensure that he passes his academics. The plan seems to go well until the final grades come in. Zoe and Aica end up having identical grade point averages. Zoe then asks her parents for help, and they decide to “donate” a new building to the school. Effectively Zoe is declared class valedictorian. Poor Aica has to settle for the number 2 spot. They don’t part ways amicably. Fast forward several years. Zoe and Aica are now very successful women in their respective careers. Zoe, who went abroad for college, is now a noted neuro-scientist while Aica is a noted teacher with her own foundation, “Math Tutorial on Wheels!” (“Huwag Math-akot!”). 

 

They have also become unrecognizable from their grade school-high school days. The formerly obese Zoe is now a chic ultra-sexy woman while Aica now has glowing porcelain skin, a perfectly sculpted nose and arched eyebrows. The two cross paths again during the preparations for the grand school reunion. And though both are civil towards each other, underneath their beautiful smiles are the flames of hatred that remained burning through the years. It’s like they never left St. Therese of Avila. 

 

Zoe again vows to “destroy” Aica. And again with the help of Marco. And with the same plan – Marco to get Aica to fall in love with him again only to dump her in the end. Marco is again unable to refuse. This time, though, Zoe promises to give Marco nothing less than her body as his prize. 

 

Everything goes as planned. Except that this time Marco genuinely falls in love with Aica. He eventually decides to bail from the agreement. This gets Zoe over the edge and leads her to undertake an elaborate plan by herself to humiliate Aica at the reunion program. And it succeeds big time. Which leads to an explosive confrontation between the two women that somehow ends with Marco getting shot. And that’s the end of Marco’s The Gifted. But it’s not the end of the movie’s story. 

 

Once again, Chris Martinez delivers a popular, funny comedy, which is also a satirical comment on Filipino society today, torn between rich and poor, knowledge and pleasure, and all the ingredients that make the Philippines a rather surrealist country, between Asia and Latin America. The gifted ones are not always the usual suspects... On The Gifted, Chris Martinez says: “I always wanted to do a dark sexy comedy, with strong, intelligent and manipulative female characters. My fascination with genius and gifted children brought about the initial concept for The Gifted. Essentially, the movie is about the power play of appearances and intelligence, of beauty and brains. Il also throws to the audience the question of what they believe in: do people really change, or they never change? All this wrapped up in a fast paced, naughty comedy about two girl misfits who end up as ‘frenemies’, and the man who comes in between them.”