Rewind (2023) Review: Grief, Guilt and a Second Chance

Is Rewind worth watching?

Yes, with reservations. Rewind is a heartfelt, openly sentimental Filipino drama that uses a time-travel premise to ask what a neglected marriage was worth, and it lands its emotional blows with real force. Much of that force comes from its leads, real-life spouses Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera, whose ease together makes the stakes feel personal. The reservation is that the film is engineered for tears and not shy about it: the fantasy rules are vague, and the melodrama is pitched high from start to finish.

What is Rewind about?

A husband and father (Dingdong Dantes) has let his work and ambition crowd out the people who matter most, including his devoted wife (Marian Rivera). When a sudden accident shatters his family, he is left with grief and the unbearable knowledge of everything he took for granted. Then he is offered the impossible: a way back to the day that changed everything, and a chance to rewrite it. The catch is that time, in this story, does not give anything away for free.

Rewind is directed by Mae Cruz-Alviar, with Coney Reyes and Ariel Ureta in the supporting cast. It is a Philippine production in Filipino, runs 115 minutes, and opened on Christmas Day 2023, when it became one of the biggest box-office hits the country’s cinemas have seen.

A love story that knows its stars

Casting a married couple as a couple in crisis is a canny move, and Rewind makes the most of it. Dantes and Rivera have an unforced familiarity, the small shared jokes and irritations of people who have lived together, and it gives the film’s early domestic scenes a texture that pure screenwriting could not. When the relationship frays, the audience believes in what is being lost.

Dantes carries the harder role, playing a man who is not especially likeable at first and has to earn sympathy through regret. He commits fully to the character’s grief without making it showy. Rivera, in a role that could easily have been a saintly ideal, brings warmth, humour and flashes of frustration that make the wife a person rather than a prize.

Time travel as a regret machine

The fantasy element is less science fiction than parable. The film is not interested in paradoxes or clever loops; it uses its premise to let a man see his own life from the outside, and to ask whether changing one day is enough to change who he is. That focus is a strength, keeping the story rooted in family rather than mechanics.

Cruz-Alviar directs in the polished, emotive style of mainstream Filipino romance. Music swells at the key moments, close-ups linger on tears, and the film makes no attempt to underplay its feelings. For its intended audience, that sincerity is exactly the point, and the film’s success in cinemas suggests it hit its target precisely.

Where the sentiment takes over

The film’s weaknesses are the flip side of its intentions. The rules governing the time travel are hazy and bend to serve emotional beats, and some turns in the story feel designed to wring out one more cry rather than to deepen the characters. At 115 minutes, the middle section repeats its lessons a few times too often. Viewers who prefer restraint will find the constant emotional pressure exhausting.

Who should watch Rewind?

It is made for fans of tearjerkers, family dramas and second-chance romances, and for anyone who follows its two stars. Keep tissues nearby and set aside a little under two hours. The subject matter involves grief, loss and a serious accident, handled emotionally rather than graphically, making it suitable for teenagers and adults, though it may be hard going for anyone recently bereaved.

If Rewind moves you:

• Hello, Love, Goodbye, another major Filipino romance, about two workers in Hong Kong torn between love and ambition.
• The Lake House, a gentler time-bending romance that also asks whether timing can be undone.
• More romance films for other stories built on love and second chances.

The verdict

Rewind is a sincere, well-acted tearjerker that turns a familiar fantasy premise into a moving portrait of regret within a marriage. Its sentimentality and loose logic will not win everyone over, but for viewers ready to feel something, it delivers with conviction.

Rating: 4/5