There are movies with messed up families but the family in this film defines “messed up” in a different way. I say it is a different way because everyone seems to go along their simple lives knowing that both Leah’s children have different fathers. Everything was fine until Leah’s ex-husband appeared in the film for the first time. Then from there it went downhill with the relationship with both husbands. What I noticed in the film was that Leah kept reminiscing the past with her ex-husband.
The actress that takes the role of Leah in the film, Vilma Santos, plays a much different character role than from the previous film we watched which was “Dekada 70”. In Dekada 70 even though she was the main character in the film she rarely had a big role in dialogue but while in Bata bata, she always says what she thinks. At the same time both films shows a very common trait, both main characters felt inferior over her husbands and she wants it to change.
In Bata bata, Leah works for a women rights organization and has worked many cases that dealt with abuse, rape, etc against women. I find it ironic how she helps other women of their rights while she doesn’t help herself on her own problem/situation. Even though Leah was not abused or harassed it seems like her problem is a lot more complicated since it involves her two children Ojie and Maya. Even though Ojie and Maya are half siblings, they both treat each other like real biological siblings. I like how both of her children argues who Leah loves their father the most, it ends up inconclusive and unending. I wonder what Leah was thinking when she wanted to be with Ding and decided to not get married. I’m guessing it had to do with Ojie. It must have been hard for Ojie when someone Ding knows asks him if Ojie is his son, he would reply that Ojie is his nephew. But Ding is not the true bad guy in this film, I would say the one with the cold heart is Leah’s ex-husband, Raffy. Raffy cowardly left Leah and Ojie on their own. So I’m guessing that Leah got desperate and found Ding and didn’t care if she got married or not since she already made the first mistake with her first husband.
I kind of didn’t like the film. It felt too fictional for me to actually believe that it could happen in the Philippines. What made it unrealistic to me is when both of Leah’s husband sides together and went against Leah, neither one of them have thought about how Leah have slept with both of them. Also the fact that Leah is still seeing her ex-husband is a bad sign of trust with who she was with now. But it doesn’t matter since everything was messed up to begin with.
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