Love Letter to a Saint: A Review of Ignacio de Loyola

written and directed by Paolo Dy

To honor the saint who was largely responsible for the foundation of the Society of Jesus, Jesuit Communications Philippines has produced a film dramatizing his conversion from a Spanish aristocrat obsessed with the notion of a romantic death in battle to a simply, holy man dedicated to serving others in the name of Christ.

Born to an affluent family, Inigo Lopez de Loyola (Andreas Munoz) is the youngest of several children. With his mother having died in childbirth, he is raised by a blacksmith while his father grieves, and as he loses a brother to armed conflict Inigo himself grows up fixated on the idea of a hero's death in battle himself. He nearly gets his wish when, during an invasion of the fortress of Pamplona by French-Navarese forces, his leg is crushed in the course of battle by a falling rampart. As he convalesces, he despairs at the knowledge that, having been crippled by his injury, he will never be a soldier again. While at home, though, he reads of the lives of the saints (which are the only books to be found in the house) and finds a new calling: that of the holy man. He determines to live the simple life of a holy pilgrim, inspired by the example of St. Francis of Assisi. He begins a journey to discover God that will transform not only his own life, but those of the people whose lives he touches with his kindness.

One thing that really struck me about this film was the attention to detail, from Dy's taut script, to the costume design, to the choice of location, this film is truly a labor not only of love but of extremely meticulous planning and execution. It calls to mind another Filipino film which, a little under a year ago, was making waves on social media, Heneral Luna. I am overjoyed to live in an era when passion projects like this, Heneral Luna, and films like Brillante Mendoza's Ma'Rosa, among many others, are being made. Even though they face tall odds in the form of generic Hollywood blockbusters or lowest-common denominator pap, Filipino filmmakers, much like Dy's take on St. Ignatius, hurl themselves into the breach.

As was the case with Heneral Luna, one can see the seams in the film's visual effects, which is to be expected as these filmmakers do not have a whole lot of money to work with, but Dy unfortunately makes the mistake of asking a little too much of his effects team in a particularly stylized sequence in which Inigo faces off against an antagonistic specter who may well be his own tortured subconscious. The result is a little wince-inducing. I also noticed repeatedly throughout the film that the camera would, at somewhat inopportune moments, suddenly lose focus. I think I get what Dy was going for in those sequences, but I feel his timing might have been a bit off.

While I appreciated the script's reverence towards the title character, I was a little disappointed by how relatively little attention was paid to how he was antagonized by the Catholic Church in the film's third act. This a period in the Church's history where they were basically killing people for the simple act of disagreeing with them. To be honest, this was, for me at least, a wasted opportunity, especially considering that the current Pope is a Jesuit and much could therefore have been made about St. Ignatius winning over his doubters. As cinematic bad guys go, one couldn't have gotten juicier material than the Inquisition-era Catholic Church; they're right up there with the Nazis in terms of sheer malevolence. While the ending had all the requisite beats of a good confrontation, I feel it wasn't quite as emotionally charged as it should have been.

Also, while the script was quite lyrical at times, it didn't quite have the gut-punch that I thought a film championing Ignacio's impact on Christianity should have, and there weren't quite any zingers like Antonio Luna's now-famous line: "You're like virgins believing in the love of a whore." Interestingly enough, one particularly engaging scene for me was one in which the newly-converted Inigo, upon a visit to a brothel instigated by his brother Beltran (Lucas Fuica) and cousin and confidant Xanti (Javier Godino), rather than lie with the woman he has been presented, actually talks to her and shows her compassion she has never before known in her life. It's a quiet, but moving scene, and Munoz and the actress who played the prostitute Ana (whose name unfortunately escapes me and is not listed on the internet), really sell it well. The film, unfortunately, does not have quite enough scenes like this, which could have helped it more than the somewhat generic battle sequence in the beginning and the repeated focus on Ignacio's daddy issues.

It's really a shame, because lead actor Munoz really gives his all in essaying this role. While there were other notables in the cast like Godino as Xanti, Fuica as Don Beltran, Julio Perillan as Father Sanchez and a whole host of other very capable Spanish actors selected for their skill and their facility with the English language, Munoz carries the film, just as John Arcilla very ably anchored Heneral Luna last year. Unfortunately, though, there were some actors with small but pivotal roles whose grasp of English was apparently so bad that Dy made the creative decision to have Filipino actors dub their dialogue, and in one case the substitution was embarrassingly obvious. In the other case, fortunately, the swap was a bit muted.

One thing that definitely wasn't muted, and which deserves prominent mention is Ryan Cayabyab's soaring musical score, which for me is easily a highlight of this film. I really appreciated how he employed a full orchestra and choir for some of the film's more "epic" scenes but did not hesitate to have solos by guitarists or other instrumentalists during the film's more intimate moments.

Ultimately, I appreciate this film for having quite a bit of heart, even for all its flaws, though I can't quite be sure if people not at all familiar with St. Ignatius would really get into it. Still, one compliment I can pay the film is this; I walked into it having had minimal sleep in the last 24 hours and I was fully expecting to doze off at some point into it, but I didn't sleep a wink. I can't even say that about the action film Jason Bourne, which I will review next.

8/10