‘Kingmaker’ finds much more to Imelda Marcos than shoes

MOVIE REVIEW

“THE KINGMAKER”

Rated R. At AMC Loews Boston Common.

Grade: A-

Sitting through Lauren Greenfield’s “The Kingmaker,” a follow-up to such Greenfield efforts as “Generation Wealth” and the award-winning “The Queen of Versailles,” you may think, why am I watching this “expose” about Imelda “Meldy” Marcos, the deplorable former first lady of the Philippines, wife of dictator, murderer and thief Ferdinand Marcos?

Together, Marcos and his wife looted and plundered their nation, stealing billions and doing almost nothing for the millions of impoverished inhabitants of their Third World nation. Sitting in her posh Manilla flat, Imelda, who still favors bright red lipstick, the Filipiana peaked-sleeve dress known as the terno and the oversized bouffant hairstyle she wore in the 1970s and ’80s (of course there is a celebrity photo of her with a younger Donald Trump), informs us that she “misses the clout” she once had.

We thank our stars she doesn’t have it anymore (or does she?). Marcos is dead, but not buried. Although he passed in 1989, he still lies “in state” because his family wants him to be buried in the Filipino cemetery of heroes, and an opposition government will not allow it. Imelda visits him every day and plants a kiss on his glass coffin.

As she drives in her limousine through Manila, she hands out cash to children. She once imported doomed animals from Africa, displacing local people for her “safari park.” We are reminded that she was once Miss Philippines and that young officer Ferdinand proposed on their first date. Her mother died when she was 8 years old and she considers herself a mother to her people. Don’t cry for me, Imelda, you might sing to yourself.

In archival footage, we are reminded that Imelda rubbed elbows with Richard Nixon, Emperor Hirohito, Ronald Reagan and Chairman Mao, who kissed her hand. Nixon even accompanied her on piano. She endured Marcos’ infidelities and developed an “edifice complex,” using government funds to buy buildings in 1980s New York City with dirty money (ergo the Trump connection). In addition to her famous shoe collection, the Marcos family amassed a fortune in property, jewelry and art.

While the Philippines were under martial law from 1972 to 1981, Marcos’ forces imprisoned and killed thousands of rebels. Under Greenfield’s watchful eye, “The Kingmaker” turns into something much more sinister than a look back at Imelda Marcos and her at times amusingly crooked life.

“The Kingmaker” turns into a political thriller in which Imelda, who is widely thought to have arranged the assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino (Greenfield shows us footage of the last minutes of Aquino’s life), tries to arrange to get her son Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos elected vice president under populist President Rodrigo “The Punisher” Duterte. Duterte stops efforts to reclaim the money stolen from the country’s coffers by the Marcos regime, gives dictator Marcos a hero’s burial and may even arrange to overturn an election and make Bongbong VP.

Imelda, who has been elected to her nation’s Congress in her old age, is playing a Filipino game of thrones, arranging for son Bongbong to follow in his father’s footsteps and create a Marcos dynasty.

(“The Kingmaker” contains violence.)

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/35LlqqZ