Over the years, we have seen romcoms evolve from espousing happily-ever-afters to embracing the beauty of solitude. Netflix’s recent Filipino film, Missed Connections, falls in the latter. But, even as it attempts to break a few preconceived notions about romance, it fails to tread the thin line between passionate ‘wokeness’ and palpable boredom.
The glue holding everything together is an app, after which the film is named. It allows people to find individuals who they have met, but not long enough to connect. They never got the chance to exchange their contact details. Missed Connections starts off fine with a background of Mae’s (Miles Ocampo) life. A T-shirt designer, she lives alone after the demise of her parents.
The only guardian figure is a single aunt. Soon enough, we see her running into Norman (Kelvin Miranda) at a supermarket. She uses the app to find him,and within no time, falls ‘in love’. This is when the film begins to torpedo too. Over the course of the film, we see the two become friends. Norman, a web designer, helps Mae set up a website for her business.
While she begins to obsess over him, he, we find out, had been looking for another missed connection, Julia, all this while.Narratives that progress through a female perspective have been a welcome change from the overwhelming male gaze associated with the genre. For instance, we have seen how a Never Have I Ever or What’s Love Got to Do with It? offer starkly different, enjoyable and empowering takes on love. While Missed Connections too has its heart in the right place, it takes too long to make the point.
Sans depth, the nearly two-hour-long film is inexplicably linear and mind-numbing. Love triangles, however clichéd, can be engaging, if executed well, but this film is a travesty of the classic romcom trope. Be it the writing, staging or performances, everything feels over-the-top and caricaturish.
There are fleeting moments of spark when the film explores the idea of self-love. When Mae reaches out to her aunt, the latter’s words resonate with people who are coming to terms with the idea of living alone. Unfortunately, the film keeps burdening Mae with high doses of melodrama that only serve to disengage us from her plight. Had the narrative not cut her and a lot of other characters such a raw deal, perhaps the film might have made something of its unique premise. As it exists, Missed Connections is a missed opportunity