Leonor Will Never Die review: If Being John Malkovich was even weirder

Midway through Martika Ramirez Escobar’s reality-bending fantasy Leonor Will Never DieLeonor, an older action screenwriter (Sheila Francisco), steps out for a puff. Leonor lies in denial about her financial condition. Tension over an unpaid electric bill led to arguments between Leonor and Rudy (Bong Carrera). Rudy tells Leonor that he needs his mom to clear her mind. But it’s a conk on the noggin that ends up bringing the family together, after Leonor is knocked into a coma by a TV — another source of conflict in her household — falling from an upstairs neighbor’s window.

That cartoon scenario sums up what’s going on thematically in this genre-bending film, a riff on The Wizard of Oz by way of Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” video. It begins in Manila today, with the charming, grandmotherly Leonor spending her time lost in television serials and old action movies. Leonor was a big name in the movies in the ’80s and ’90s, but she retreated from filmmaking 10 years ago after an accident on the set killed her eldest son, Ronwaldo (Anthony Falcon). She’s been holed up in her house ever since, bickering with Rudy and spending quiet afternoons sitting with Ronwaldo’s ghost.

Ronwaldo, who has been dead for quite some time, is a character in the movie, differentiated from his living relatives only by the fact that he’s slightly transparent. It also tells you something. Leonor Will Never Die. The boundaries between life and death are permeable in Leonor’s world, and so are the ones between imagination and reality. There are a few fake-VHS-action-movie scenes sprinkled throughout the film, which Leonor found in an incomplete screenplay shortly before she was injured. Her body is in a coma, but her spirit wanders into the movie world and becomes the author of the film as well as a character. (In a warm, amusing touch, the characters in Leonor’s movie all love her, but they can’t explain why.)

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However Leonor Will Never Die pays loving tribute to the ragtag violence of Filipino action cinema, it’s equally influenced by quirky indie meta-comedy. Leonor’s trip over the rainbow and into her screenplay has a Being John Malkovich quality — take, for example, a scene where Rudy dives into the TV set mounted to the ceiling of a hospital waiting room, on a mission to save his mother. The film sometimes pulls back further and reveals its own production, by incorporating behind the scenes footage into the story. The story ends with Escobar, the writer and director, playing a role in the movie. She appears in an interlude during late-night editing sessions, in which she discusses the best way to close the movie.

Escobar is a cinematographer by trade, and she and her crew have a lot of fun playing with different cameras, shooting styles, and formats — the action-movie scenes are filmed in 4:3, for example. This film is a culmination of all their efforts. The “real world” is composed of muted colors and long, unbroken wide shots, while the action-movie reality is grimier, grainier, and more colorful. Tongue-in-cheek, the action scenes use repeated shots and abrupt zooms. Sometimes they even reuse a particularly badass punch more than once. But the funniest of these moments comes when the hero of the movie, also named Ronwaldo (Rocky Salumbides), reaches the end of Leonor’s unfinished script. He stops midway through the chase scene and looks up to the sky for direction.

Beyond just being a fun aesthetic exercise, these action-movie tributes also present a nostalgic longing for a simpler world — one where the machine guns are plastic, good guys and bad guys are easily distinguishable from one another, and any problem can be solved with a roundhouse kick. When the themes get heavy, the absurdity of the action-movie characters’ wigs and line readings keeps the tone light. Even the simple fact that Leonor is a woman has a wistful quality to it: Escobar’s version of the Filipino film industry is a matriarchy controlled by powerful women, a fantasy that stands in sharp contrast to the hyper-macho historical reality.

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Leonor Will Never Die’s scrappiness Does have its downsides. The story meanders its way around each new plot point as it’s presented, and combined with the multimedia shooting style, it has a loose, collage-like quality. Viewers’ tolerance for the approach may vary. And while Escobar’s honesty is refreshing when she admits on screen that she doesn’t know how to finish the film, the musical-number ending does It feels a bit tacked-on. Still, Escobar’s open-hearted embrace of the process just adds to the movie’s charm. The movie is filled with joyous collaboration and a feeling of playful play. Leonor Will Never DieIt is a beautiful thing, even though it deals with important issues such as life, death and the legacy. It reminds us both that love and creativity are alive, and they should be shared.

Leonor Will Never DieIt will be available in limited quantities starting Nov. 25 and expanding nationwide throughout December.