Review: The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveras

Filipino-American author Han Ong once wrote that at first hearing, the Tagalog language would seem to require more the services of an ornithologist than of an interpreter. The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveras, an independent film from the Philippines recently released on DVD, has excellent subtitles but may have you looking up the number of that tropical bird-watcher you used to know. It's small, soft, colorful, and delicate on the surface but fiercely strong underneath, and it frequently takes sudden cinematic flight.

Like Maximo himself, a 12-year-old boy on the streets of Manila who seemingly couldn't survive as a prancing transvestite but somehow does, Blossoming triumphs despite its tricky premise of a romance between Maximo and a no-nonsense beat cop, Victor. Much to its credit, the film neither judges their relationship nor overlooks its problems. Both Maximo's family and Victor's precinct mates know something's going on, and they're doubly ostracized because Maximo's father and brothers are small-time criminals at odds with the new precinct captain. The movie makes obvious allusions to Romeo and Juliet and plays on the sort of melodramas that Maximo and his friends act out in an early interlude, but at its core it's a subtle and sophisticated film.

Shooting digital video in a real Manila barrio and using a lot of what looks like documentary footage, director Auraeus Solito has created a work that looks as if it rose up from the gritty streets by itself. Some of the night scenes are awash in digital noise from the attempt to shoot in very low light, but that usually accentuates the naturalistic visual style. The two lead performances are excellent, though no one else is spectacular. Blossoming's very flaws make it more vibrant, while its treatment of the potentially overwrought subject matter ultimately is subdued and mature. "Gay movies" with larger budgets and bigger names would benefit from its intelligence and emotional truth.