Meet Me In St. Gallen is the story of two random strangers, Celeste and Jessie, meeting for a total of three days in a period of eight years and we become privy to those borrowed times they were together. At first I didn't get it but after watching the trailer and reading reviews as to how the move is inspired by the 'Before' trilogy of Richard Linklater (none of which I've seen) I changed my mind in posting a harsh rundown of everything that was wrong with the movie and instead into a loving plea if in case they do decide to make a sequel.
First, let us all acknowledge that the character Celeste has issues. I'm trying not to judge because I don't know her background but she has some hangups in life that she needs to process (preferably on her own to avoid collateral damage) and hopefully get through. Jessie on his part also has issues but he's the more grounded one so the fault of failing to spot (or ignoring) the red flags falls on him. They could've avoided all the yearnings and heartaches they went through if they didn't push for something that clearly wasn't meant to happen. But then again, where's the fun in that, right? "Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all", but what price are you willing to pay for it?
As for the acting, I feel it fell a little short and I would have to say it's more an issue in directing than the actors. Bela Padilla could've gone all the way a la Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted or just be kooky like any Zooey Deschanel character. There were moments she annoyed me (in a good way, the character was annoying) but she wasn't able to sustain it if my assumption is correct that the director didn't challenge her enough. Carlo Aquino is reliable but again the director could've pushed him to be a little more like Joseph Gordon Levitt in 500 Days of Summer. I wanted to feel sorry for him but he didn't reel me in enough for me to do so. Also when they get into the highlight of the movie which is talking about philosophical stuff (coincidence, destiny, living in the moment) it falls short because it doesn't come off naturally but more like they're trying to recall what's in the script so it ruins the moment. Just the same it made me realize why these kind of movies are in right now. It's because we don't sit down with people anymore to talk about anything as passionately as before the advent of social media. Now we're content in updating ourselves with browsing our FB timelines and maybe chatting a couple of friends once in a while.
