Barcelona: A Love Untold

Olivia M. Lamasan's 2016 Filipino melodrama was one of the biggest box office successes for the pairing of Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla. Ely, who cannot get over a past love, meets Mia, who has fled a painful history in the Philippines and is trying to rebuild in Spain. The film puts the daily life of the migrant Filipino community, the difficulty of finding work and the impossibility of going home not in the background of the romance but directly inside it. What Lamasan does best is carry the melodrama all the way without embarrassment; the emotions are outsized but consistent. The runtime is long even by the habits of mainstream Filipino cinema, and the middle section sags. The touristic use of Barcelona sometimes drops to postcard level. Who it's for: viewers who follow Filipino romantic drama, popular cinema about migration, and the Bernardo and Padilla pairing. Who it's not for: those looking for restraint, or who will find nearly two and a half hours and the melodrama templates too much.