Uninvited Review – Vilma Santos, Aga Muhlach, Nadine Lustre
Here’s my Uninvited review which stars Vilma Santos, Aga Muhlach, Nadine Lustre and directed by Dan Villegas. The film opens December 25 and is part of this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival from Mentorque Productions, Project 8 and Warner Bros Pictures.
Check out the killer trailer for this film:
Trigger Warning: This review will touch on subjects like rape, sexual abuse and violence
Two things that you kinda need to know to greatly appreciate the story is the case of Antonio Sanchez and the Miriam Rodriguez story.
The film is set on the evening of Guilly Vega’s 55th birthday and there is one uninvited guest that attended and that happens to be aggrieved mother Lilia Capistrano aka Eva Candelaria and she is only there for one thing – revenge. The film unfolds like a true murder revenge film going forward and laden with flashbacks to build up to the crime that destroyed Eva’s life.
Vilma Santos plays Lilia / Eva, the uninvited guest who shows up to get her revenge on the men that took her daughter away from, her daughter whom she treasured and was assaulted and murdered by Guilly and his men. And I have to say, Ate Vi in a revenge genre film is something I wasn’t counting on for 2024 and it was definitely peak cinema. It’s already established that she’s great with mother roles, what we weren’t sure until the screening of Uninvited was if she could take that to the next level as a mother out for revenge, spoiler alert she did nail it.
So by the time we get to the third act and shit hits the fan for the antagonists, we are already cheering for Ate Vi to get the bad guys. And that alone can be the sole reason you need to watch the film.
The antagonists for the film are pretty much everybody but the worst of them all is Aga Muhlach‘s Guilly Vega, the billionaire with crimes as long as your arm. Muhlach plays this charming and very amoral person who gets what he wants and does whatever he wants. Aga’s character is one that’s easy to like but as you learn of what he’s done, you still want to hate his guts but he’s very charming still. There’s one scene in the film that really showcases how much he can act as an evil person. One may think his role is easy but if you watch his body language and intonation, you know that he’s delivering A-class performance.
Both Aga and Vilma brings out the best of their co-stars throughout the movie. That scene between Vilma and Gabby Padilla was touching while Gabby’s and Aga Muhlach’s performance was downright disturbing. Then they had to amp up the disturbing and triggering parts when they chose to add a scene of a mindbroken Gabby in bed with Aga.
Nadine Lustre plays Nicole Vega, the daughter of Guilly Vega and an unwitting player in that evening’s revenge run. As usual, if she gets nominated this year she really deserves it. She brings her A-game to this movie playing this rich bitch type who parties hard and has a rebellious streak from here to the moon. Nadine’s role in Uninvited is also one that pushes the envelop for maturity, yes, Nadine Lustre has a sex scene here in the film but there’s no nudity here.
I have to admire the writing for the film with her starting off as this a standard character who sticks to a certain stereotype but by the climax, she’s a whole new creature. My only gripe for Nadine’s role is that I feel like she didn’t have enough scenes where she can really flex her acting skills but given with what she got, she was awesome.
The screenplay and general plot is tight and very engrossing thanks to the writing of Dodo Dayao. The pacing and the plots is interesting and will bring you to the edge of your seat.
If there’s one gripe I have with the film, its those small unresolved stuff namely what happened to Mylene Dizon’s character aka the wife of Guilly Vega and what they wanted to do with Tirso Cruz III’s character and what he was supposed to do and what he should bring to the plot. Those things weren’t clear for me to be honest.
I’m trying to avoid spoilers here but I have to point out that this had a lot of similarities to the Mayor Antonio Sanchez case from the 90s on several bits including the kidnapping and sexual abuse of a female student that was brought to the rich evil man.
The scoring and cinematography was top notch and I was satisfied with the ending. The monologues and dialogues are also powerful plus we didn’t even have to read between the lines because it also drags how justice is different for the rich and the poor.
RATING: A+
Verdict:
Uninvited is a tightly written, angst-ridden dark film that dives into one night of revenge and excess. Aga Muhlach shines as a very, very bad man while Vilma Santos plays a grieving mother out for revenge. It’s a film that goes directly into social divide, the rich vs the power and the inequalities of society. The action scenes can be brutal and the subjects discussed can be dark and yet Uninvited proves to be a shining star in terms of providing a bloody entertaining good time. It’s also such a nice thing to see three talented stars going for a darker story with gray characters with their own motivations and their own dark secrets. Uninvited will truly paint the town red this Holiday season as part of the MMFF 2024 lineup.
Special thanks to Mentorque Productions and Warner Bros Pictures.
