Regal Entertainment’s The Escort starring Derek Ramsay and Lovi Poe has one main selling point – the seductive movie was approved by MTRCB as R-13 without cuts. And it appears that the film outfit is successful in convincing moviegoers to actually watch it. This Enzo Williams-helmed film raked in P10 million on its first two days, a feat for non-Star Cinema movie.The story begins with Cyrus (Ramsay), who runs an escort service agency that caters to an affluent clientele, He meets Yassi, a waitress and invites her to work for him as a receptionist with a promise of a bigger paycheck.
After a few days working at the front desk, Yassi gets an offer from Cyrus to join the other girls in “high-class whoring” in exchange for a much bigger pay. He sets up Yassi with Gary Montenilla (Christopher de Leon), a recently widowed powerful businessman.
Cyrus hopes that Yassi’s exposure to the world of escort service would convince her to finally join the trade. But Yassi, who apparently wants to preserve her virginity, is reluctant and maintains she just wants to work as desk clerk.
In the process, Cyrus quickly and unexpectedly falls in love with her. On the other hand, Gary begins to make his intentions clear – he wants Yassi to marry him even without the emotional connection. She turns him down and chooses Cyrus instead.
Then, a revelation ensued: Cyrus is also an escort who works exclusively for a mayor’s wife (Jean Garcia). The politician who has learned of Cyrus affair with his wife is now out of jail and on a mission to hunt him.
One day, the mayor’s men beaut up Cyrus and wanted to finish him off. To bail her lover out of this predicament, Yassi asks Gary to contact the mayor to spare Cyrus’s life and give him immediate medical attention. The price? Her virginity.
But just like any local film that involve two lovers, Cyrus and Yassi end up in each other’s arms, get married and start anew.
After saving Cyrus from the hand of the jealous politician and his goons, she cuts her ties with the first and goes on to becoming an escort herself. It could have been the fitting ending because it challenges the audience to think. It could have created more impact if the story was open-ended rather than giving away too much.
It was easy to forgive the film for its shortcomings when it cast four actors who gave justice to their respective roles. However, giving the audience another passé ending is an insult to the fresh approach the film initially established. More so, when it celebrates the sexiness of women, but it recklessly depicted them as the weaker sex, target of abuse and defenseless in the men dominated world.
High-class escort service is an intriguing subject to explore but Williams centered on narrating a tale, which conflict is resolved by the universal idea that love always wins. But it’s hardly even romantic as the characters become immediately in love without any background how their actual romance or attraction started.
In terms of production value, The Escort takes viewers to charming and picturesque locations through the use of a drone equipped with a low-resolution camera. Hence, those aerial shots botched every single effort. This might work in a mobile device but not on big screens because it only shows how limited Regal’s budget was to execute such scenes.
Generally, The Escort resembles its heroes who are convincingly sexy and telegenic. The screen smolders when they share the bed naked. And if you’re one of those who want to see the film because of its main selling point, we totally understand. But here is a movie, which is a lot of things really, but brilliant is not one of them. It’s like a cold shower when what you’re actually up to a nice warm bath.
