Love You to the Stars and Back: Movie Review

Part-romance, part-sci-fi, part-comedy, "Love You to the Stars and Back" solidifies the undeniably great chemistry between Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto. With the freedom to be out-of-the-box, this is one local romcom that defiantly breaks barriers.

Mika (Julia Barretto) has yet to move on from her mother's (Carmina Villaroel) untimely passing. Frustrated with her life, Mika decides to embark on a trip to Mt. Milagros in the hopes that aliens will also take her away. In the process, she accidentally meets Caloy (Joshua Garcia) by chance whom she falls in love with before discovering that he has cancer.

First things first, as a romance-comedy, "Love You to the Stars and Back" is a great one. The chemistry between Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto is still one of the bigger reasons why the film just works but more than that, the film was able to deliver a hefty amount of drama which completely caught us off guard. Don't let the film's first half fool you into thinking that this is going to be all laughs and jeers. The abrupt change in tone in the second half left us in shock and literally breathless. This is also the part where the acting chops of our leads were tested and both thankfully passed with flying colors. While the plot feel fresh, this is also where we felt the film just rushed it. Surprisingly, the alien twist of the film is more believable than the one day semi-tryst between Mika and Caloy. Color us as realists but finding someone you truly love in just a day of bonding was extremely hard to swallow. It's a minor thing really but we felt that it should have been more than just a day. Additionally, some of the side-plots our leads get into feel unnecessary. Overall though, minor quips aside, this is a solid outing for the budding love team and one that wasn't afraid to be quirky and different.

Rating: 4 reels




Why you should watch it:
- great chemistry between Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto
- the film had a surprisingly heavy emotional heft

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- the all-in-one-day approach was hard to swallow

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