By Neil Ramos
At A Glance
- Barbie Forteza takes on her boldest role yet in "Saving Cherry," a raunchy sex-dramedy that lets her swear, tackle sexual situations and showcase a wider emotional range. or years, Barbie Forteza has been the kind of actress you could almost imagine having a “good girl” clause in her contracts.
Her roles have generally been wholesome. The language is clean. Sexual innuendo? Rarely, if ever. So, there is something genuinely amusing about watching Forteza in “Saving Cherry,” a Regal Entertainment sex-dramedy, and seeing her throw much of that image out the window.
Well, almost.
There is no nudity here, but Forteza swears, gets herself into increasingly ridiculous sexual situations and even does an orgasm scene. For an actress whose screen persona has been closely associated with propriety, this is quite a detour.
Her fans don't seem to mind.
Some of them watched the movie with us and were more than happy to cheer Forteza on from the get-go. There was no shock. If anything, they seemed pleased to see their favorite actress taking on something this different.
“Saving Cherry,” however, isn't simply about a good girl getting naughty.
Cherry is a bride-to-be who has some very traditional ideas about being a woman, particularly the notion of saving herself for the man she intends to marry.
That's about where the traditional part ends.
She is otherwise a modern woman, a go-getter with dreams, passions and plans of her own. She is also stubborn and, at times, pretty self-centered.
An injury ends her career as a track athlete, followed by the death of her mother. Cherry loses herself and leaves, supposedly to figure things out. Josh, the boyfriend she leaves behind, is left hanging.
Years later, Cherry decides to come back and pick up where they left off. She agrees to marry Josh, only to discover him with another woman on their wedding night.
Cherry goes berserk.
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She cannot accept what has happened and wants revenge. Her solution is to sleep with another man, partly to spite her husband and partly because, well, this is a sex comedy.
Her friends, played by Mikee Quintos, Mika Salamanca, AC Bonifacio and Sassa Gurl, are more than willing to help.
The result is a series of increasingly absurd situations that turn Cherry's heartbreak into a running joke.
And it works.
The language is unrestrained, the mood is loose, and the movie is comfortable with its own silliness.
Forteza carries it.
She gets to play furious, pathetic, horny, funny and vulnerable, sometimes within the same scene. There is one moment when she packs so much emotion into a single expression that you are reminded just how much acting she has had to leave on the table in some of those good-girl roles.
If you're into raunchy comedy, lots of swearing and a heroine who can be messy, impulsive, this one should work for you.
It isn't high art.
It's a good time.
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