Response To "American Adobo" by Rod Antalan

Response to American Adobo

In the movie “American Adobo”, there are five main characters. This film follows the life of these exiled Filipinos who are now living in the U.S. Their problems were showcased through out the movie. The problems varied from problems within a family to problems with ones’ self.
This film follows the lives of a group of very close friends. The characters are all Philippine-born yet all reside in the United States, or more specifically New York City. The movie begins with them all gathering together for dinner. Here you get the chance to view the close relationship bonds that each of them share with one another. You are able to see various characteristics from each character which seem to unfold later on within the movie.
The significance of this dinner is that it is a way for them to escape the daily grind and just enjoy each others’ company. Tere, is the cook of the group, she loves cooking and has seemed to perfect a certain Filipino dish. This dish is adobo. Her friends constantly compliment her on her recipe. This dish, along with the get-togethers seem to be what holds them all so closely together. They use this time together to tell each other what is going on in their lives here in the U.S.
One of the more key characters in the film is Tere. She seems to be the glue that keeps everyone together. Should any of her friends have any problems, she is right there to lend a helping hand. She is portrayed as the very religious, passive, and intelligent woman. Although she is intelligent, she fails to see that people tend to walk all over her; especially the men. Throughout the movie, it is quite apparent that she loves cooking for her friends so much because she is lonely, and doing so allows her to spend time with them. She is the character that can help everyone else but not herself. She lacks the confidence in herself to make her life the way she would like it to be.
Mike was one of the characters who actually was married. Yet the problem here was that he had married a woman who did not care for anyone but herself. His daughter grew up to be wild and uncontrollable because of the negligence of her mother and her busy father. The problems he was having with his family caused him to come to the decision to leave them and in doing so, he was able to find someone who really did care for him and his children.
Raul was the womanizer in the story. He used the company of women to boost his ego and this lead to him to self-discovery. His playboy actions almost cost him his life because one of his ex-lovers turned out to be HIV positive. It turns out though that he was not positive. This allowed him to see the error in his ways and made him reflect on how he needed to change.
Marissa is the materialistic woman who has trouble finding stable and happy relationships. This is evident when she keeps going back to that dead-beat boyfriend of hers time and time again.
Gerri is the one who is struggling with his personal life and that between his friends. He has yet to reveal to all of them that he is gay. He comes to a point where he cannot be himself around them and his mother.
Watching this movie was really interesting for me. I thought that there were a lot of things that I could relate to because of the characters’ actions as Filipino-Americans. Many of them tried to conform to the ways of Americans while at the same time losing their own sense of Filipino identity. The dinners are what always brought them bask though. I thought this was important because my family and I have this dinner all the time. It serves as a time where my parents, uncles, and aunties can spend time reflecting on life in the Philippines and share stories about their lives. I felt that this was the theme of the movie where these dinners were what brought them all together so that they could forget about their problems and be happy.