“She’s already 25. I allow her to decide for herself, trusting that she knows what’s good for her in the long run,” thus said former actress Marjorie Barreto when asked to comment on daughter Julia’s decision to take on a mature, provocative role in new film, “Expensive Candy.”

     Marjorie said parents raise their children, so that in time, they will grow their own wings. “My role now is to support her in this new phase in her career.”

      She added that she flashed the go-signal to the project when Julia brought it up with her. “We both liked the script very much.”

     It helped that “Expensive Candy” was both written and directed by Jason Paul Laxamana, who earlier directed “Between Maybe’s,” the first team-up between Julia and boyfriend Gerald Anderson in 2019.

    Mother and daughter agreed they both liked that film as well.

Xx

    Media caught up with Marjorie at  the movie’s premiere at SM’s The Block Sept 5, wherein wild, spontaneous applause roared across Cinema 3 at the end of the screening.

   “Expensive Candy” comes off as a “graduation” film for Julia, who shall henceforth be seen in a new light, as a grown woman in transition. The film has its own share of sexy visuals, showcasing the beauty and flaunted sex appeal of its lead star, yet, there’s so much more to it than skin deep.

    Alternately entertaining and moving, it makes a forceful statement on choices, poverty, ambition, love, and especially the high cost of being in love. Its milieu, prostitution in cheap neighborhoods in Pampanga, calls to mind, conversely, the women in glass cabinets ready for the picking by male customers in Amsterdam’s red-light district. Vilma Santos played in the 1980s one of those women in a landmark film, Miss X, by Gil Portes.    

Xx

      Care has been given due attention to Julia as far as her sexy scenes are concerned. While playing the part of a sexy dancer and sex worker, she isn’t shown making love with multiple male customers, except for one, Carlo Aquino, the male lead, with whom she shares an edgy  romantic bond. The rest is left to the imagination and are merely suggestive.

    Carlo, as usual, makes a powerful presence in the film, whether in its comical moments (deadpan, stoic) or in the serious ones (emotive, highly charged in one final scene).

     Julia’s not to be left behind. She shines both as a star (so beautiful) and as an actress (illuminating) here, given to a high degree of vulnerability, making her portrayal quite honest.    

      There are those who say “Expensive Candy reminds them of the 1990 romantic comedy, “Pretty Woman,” which starred Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. Nothing can be farther from this fallacy.

      The only reference I could see would probably be the costuming of Julia’s character, clad in an elegant mix of black boots, sexy shorts, and what looked like bra and panties. 

      “Expensive Candy,” by Viva Films, opens in cinemas on Sept. 14.