FK Reviews “The Loved One (2026)”: Who Really Loved More?
“Dahil ako ang mas nagmahal, ako ang laging naghihintay.”
When Eric drops this line in The Loved One, it slaps. Or maybe it’s just a convenient excuse. By the time the credits rolled, I found myself whispering to the empty theater: Bakit ang bigat? Ang hirap makipagbreak talaga, ‘no?
Directed and written by Irene Emma Villamor, this film stars Anne Curtis and Jericho Rosales in a love story that doesn’t just hurt, but interrogates. It’s about extremes: passion that consumes, fights that explode, and tenderness that stings because it feels painfully real. Love, in this film, is messy, loud, and unapologetically human.
When Love Hits Loud and Hard
From the first scene, it’s obvious: the love in the movie is anything but subtle. Eric (Jericho Rosales) and Ellie (Anne Curtis) fight hard, make up harder, and even their silences are loaded with tension. Every interaction feels alive, volatile, and impossible to ignore.
Unlike quiet, aesthetic heartbreaks in other films, The Loved One throws chaos at you. It forces you to feel heartbreak, impatience, and endless hope that understanding might come… too late. Yet, amid the explosions, Villamor sprinkles intimate, quiet moments that cut deeper than the fights. You can’t help but reflect: sometimes, you love more than they can return.
How Small Differences Tear Couples Apart
The film shines in the details. Eric is a Leo, Ellie a Gemini. Their personalities clash and complement each other in ways both subtle and infuriating: his intensity, her curiosity, his stubbornness, her adaptability.
Even minor debates about life, love, and politics become loaded. In The Loved One, these aren’t background filler; they expose how two people can see the world completely differently. It’s a sharp reminder that love alone doesn’t solve every problem and sometimes, chemistry is only half the story.
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Irene Emma Villamor’s Signature Heartbreak
Irene Emma Villamor, known for Sid & Aya: Not a Love Story and Camp Sawi, doesn’t just tell a story; she dissects love. Every line, every frame, every silenced glance in The Loved One is deliberate.
Eric’s line about waiting hits because it’s earned, not scripted. You don’t just watch the pain; you feel it in your chest, your jaw, your quiet panic of “What if?” Villamor proves once again why she’s one of Filipino cinema’s most precise observers of the human heart.
Curtis and Rosales in Electric Chemistry
Anne Curtis as Ellie is both armor and vulnerability, strong but wary, fiery but careful. Jericho Rosales as Eric is all intensity and fragility, loving so fully it’s exhausting to watch. Together, their chemistry in The Loved One is electric, but not safe. It’s the kind of love that grabs you, shakes you, and refuses to let go.
It’s messy. It’s imperfect. And that’s exactly the point.
Who Really Loved More?
By the final act, the movie refuses easy answers. No neat conclusions. No moral victories. Only reflection, lingering ache, and the uncomfortable truth: love isn’t fair. It doesn’t always make sense. It just hits—loudly—and asks you to survive it.
For anyone who has loved too much or watched someone they love see the world differently, The Loved One will linger long after the credits. Provocative, critical, and painfully honest, it reminds us that sometimes love hurts because it refuses to be ignored.
Score: 9/10 – The Loved One excels at relatability. From the chaos of fights to the vulnerability of waiting, it hits every emotional note that makes you say, “Oo, naranasan ko na ‘to.”
