All families can relate to the story of Francisco and Eleanor’s family. After all, everyone was once a son or daughter.
Every family member or sibling has his or her own issues to deal with—as seen in Family Matters. It does not help that dealing with the issue comes with a health crisis from your parents. This was one of the storylines in Nuel Naval’s Family Matters, shown during the 2022 Metro Manila Film Festival. Francisco (Noel Trinidad) and Eleanor (Liza Lorena) were living comfortably and had four wonderful children. But when Francisco started to have health issues, his children decided to care for him and Eleanor despite the personal family issues all of them were going through.
Family Matters: Issues between the siblings
In the Family Matters movie, we see the conflict between four siblings: Kiko, Fortune, Helen, and Enrico. Kiko, the eldest and most successful one, is an engineer by profession. He keeps insisting that they hire a private nurse to tend to their parents but gets rebuffed by his father. He also tends to clash with his youngest brother Enrico, who is often bullied as a “menopause baby.”
Fortune and Helen are the sisters who act as peacemakers. Fortune’s husband Nelson finds Kiko arrogant just because he is the most successful of them. Helen, who is the single among them, wants to try to have a life of her own after tending to her parents. She briefly left the family to try a life in the US and be with her boyfriend only to come back and realize she was not happy.
Enrico, the youngest, has a daughter from his ex-partner (whom Ina Feleo plays). He tries to be civil with her for the sake of their child despite some reluctance from her. He also tries to make his new partner (played by Anna Luna) feel at home despite the awkwardness she feels around his family.
The issue among the siblings intensifies during a family gathering and becomes a domino effect among their respective families. This led Francisco to speak up, saying he could not stand the fighting and blamed himself for what was happening.
If the conflict between the siblings was not enough, there were issues as well within Kiko’s family.
Kiko’s frustrations at work and in his family manifest in his relationship with his own family, most notably his son Francis (Ian Pangilinan). When Francis clashed with his father despite trying to do his best as the eldest child, he finds himself being slapped and rebels against him.
While driving his car, Francis gets into an accident. Kiko and Odette (Agot Isidro), afraid of his condition after seeing the damage immediately, go to the hospital and see Francis only suffering minor bruises. Kiko, realizing he nearly lost his son, makes amends with him.
Following the reconciliation, Francisco asks his family to spend time with them in the province and celebrate their wedding anniversary. He also asked his children and grandchildren to surrender gadgets and go back to the basics and be a family. They eventually learn to be with the people that matter to them.
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We can all relate to the movie
Every Filipino can relate to the film because of the plots of each family member. There’s the successful one, the peacemaker, the loving daughter, and the rebellious child. But despite the differences, families always look out for each other. All of us were once daughters or sons, too.
In an era where technology has become a way to communicate, it also tends to be the reason for miscommunication. Some of Francisco’s words to Kiko and Francis are so memorable. In one scene, he told Kiko to put down his phone and look him in the eye, saying that the phone will always be there while he won’t when talking to him.
There is also one famous line that Francisco mentioned. “For you to connect, you must disconnect.” It’s high time that this generation takes it to heart.
