If it weren’t for the crisp 1h 30m runtime that screamed “watch me, I won’t take much of your time”, I would’ve never streamed the 2022 comedy ‘The Entitled’ on Netflix.
Directed by Theodore Boborol, the film follows Belinda (Alex Gonzaga), a poor young woman who finds out her estranged father is super-rich and wants her to move in with his family in his swanky property and learn about his business. What follows is a trashy comedy about how the ‘uncultured’ Belinda tries to learn the ways of the rich.
Alex Gonzaga the lead actor is like the Philippines version of Awkwafina, but thanks to the terrible script, it’s hard to like her at all. The writers’ idea of comedy is Belinda scratching her crotch in public. Or of having one of the maid’s in Belinda’s new mansion inapproproately flirt with the family lawyer. “Would you like tea, coffee, or me?” she asks.
So you have either old reused jokes, or new ones that are just cheap, ridiculous and unfunny. There’s a 2000 Bollywood flop film called ‘Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hain’ with a similar plotline that was far more engaging than this. It’s about a poor adopted village man reuniting with his family and trying to cope with the new high-flying big city lifestyle. Much like the 22 year old film, even in ‘The Entitled’, Belinda struggles with her new life and gets accused of something she didn’t do. The less said about her cheesy stale romantic sub-plot the better.
Far from being a quick entertainer, ‘The Entitled’ is insufferable. I had downloaded the film on my Netflix account to watch it on an overnight train journey, and even though I didn’t have anything else to watch or do, I chose to sleep at 8 pm (from someone you rarely sleeps before 1 am) and stopped this film half-way.
It’s a 2/10 from me.