A Very Special Love 2008

Laida Magtalas (Sarah Geronimo) is a modern-day Belle who works hard to provide for her family while believing that someday she will meet her prince charming and they will lie happily ever after together. That prince charming is none other than Miggy Montenegrro (John Lloyd Cruz), the youngest of the Montenegro clan — a well-established family in the business world. Laida dreams of meeting Miggy every day and every night. These dreams led her to apply as an Editorial Assistant at Miggy’s failing men’s magazine.

As Laida and Miggy’s fight to save the magazine become more intense, so is their fight to keep their intentions and emotions at bay. Will Laida and Miggy ever figure out the right combination to solve their problems in business and in their personal lives? Or will their mismatching personalities, despite their common interest and goal keep them from ever figuring out their perfect pair?

A Very Special Love(movie) is the first movie of the John Lloyd Cruz-Sarah Geronimo team-up. Produced by Star Cinema and directed by Cathy Garcia-Molina in July 30 2008, this movie was the highest grossing local movie of 2008. Second only to Iron Man, A Very Special Love grossed $3,836,701 or approximately P191,835,050 in its eight-week screening. This earned Cruz and Geronimo the title of Box office King and Queen of 2008 for both the Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Foundation and SM Cinemas. Because of the success of this movie, Star Cinema has produced a sequel to this movie entitled "You Changed My Life".

The film received an "A" rating from the Cinema Evaluation Board (CEB) which assures producers of a 100% amusement tax exemption and moviegoer of movie quality in both story and technical aspects. Moreover, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) rated the film General Patronage.

Plot

Miggy Montenegro is the youngest of the Montenegros, an influencial family in several business industries in the country. Laida, raised in a modest home, dreams of nothing but Miggy and hopes that she can meet him someday. This pushes her to apply as an Editorial Assistant in "Bachelor", a men's magazine managed by Miggy. But as she interacts with her dream man in the workplace, she realizes that he is not the person she expected him to be. The real Miggy Montenegro is hot-headed and insensitive, and pushes people away from him.
Laida tries to help him change, she tries to constantly make Miggy smile and for a second, seems to succeed. However, when Miggy is reminded of the conflict within his family, he begins to go back to his old ways. It seems as if Laida's efforts are not enough to soften Miggy's heart, or are they? Will Laida ever get her happily ever after?

Laida Magtalas is a modern-day Belle who works hard to provide for her family while hoping that someday she will meet her prince charming and that they will live happily ever after together. That would-be prince charming is none other than "Miggy", the youngest member of the Montenegro clan — a well established family in the business world. Moony Laida's desire to finally meet Miggy leads her to apply as an Editorial Assistant at his newly launched men’s magazine, "Bachelor". In spite of the fact that a relationship with Miggy may prove to be a long shot, Laida revels working in such close proximity with the man of her dreams.

The film opens with Laida starting out her day for a job interview with Flippage, owned and manage by her crush Miguel " Miggy " Montenegro. a son of a wealthy and prominent business family ( later revealed in the sequel that the family mains business is in the airline and trade industry). Unbeknownst to her, on the day of her interview, Miggy was having a heated meeting with his creative team on the issue of the Bachelor, Flippage’s mens magazine. Miggy’s mean demeanor and undermining of both his friend and editors cause a walkout of half of the team. In the middle of the chaos laida was hired of the spot after she presented Miggy with coffee left by an attendant who also walked out after being screamed at. The coffee will be a symbolic part throughout the film as Laida would often put post it messages on the coffee cups that she serves Miggy.

By some stroke of luck, Laida lands the job. Overwhelmed by being in the presence of her long–time crush and by her recently acquired career, Laida remains blinded to the fact that the Miggy of her dreams is very different from the real one. In reality, he is an unapologetic, hothead who always thinks he's in the right and obsesses about nothing making his magazine number one. Everyone is scared of him with the exception of the love-stuck Laida, who adamantly defends him. Imperceptively, she caters to his every whim, even sending her in his absence on a date with his girlfriend, breaking her heart a little. Her colleagues question her unrelenting devotion to such a monster and when Laida continues to proves her loyalty to Miggy, gossip regarding her feelings for the boss starts to circulate. However the moment was short lived, as the next day after Laida made a suggestion in regards to an article content that Miggy should put for the magazine, Miggy publicly humiliates her and her knowledge of sex and questioned her virtue (virginity) in front of the staff by making her say the word “ Sex”. Miggy was later embarrassed himself after he realized that it was Laida who made the last minute call and effort to find a printing press to do a rush job on their magazines overhaul. After being chastised by the despotic Miggy, Laida’s finally opens her eyes and sees him for the tyrant he truly is.

The confrontation with Laida was a rude awakening for Miggy as well and he realizes why people are so put-off by him. Miggy then tries with much difficulty on his part of “apologize” in his own way to Laida. First by ordering pizza for the team and serving a slice himself to her. Which Laida ignores. Laida, now disenchanted with Miggy was called in by her officemates to go to Miggy’s condo to deliver the article drafts for approval much to her dismay. As well it was her mothers birthday. However upon arriving in Miggy’s apartment, she found Miggy high with fever with very little food or necessities in his apartment, with no househelp or family to care for him. Laida took care of Miggy, missing her own mothers birthday. Miggy woke up during a break in fever and saw the exhausted Laida next to him patting his back as a mother would to a sick child. This prompted Miggy to realize his feelings to Laida igniting a change in him and wishing Laida to be more closer to him as well as being more friendly with the rest of his team. The productivity and atmosphere of the company thus also changed in a positive note. Miggy also became comfortable enough to tell laida the truth behind his past, that he was an illegitimate child of his father later adopted to the main family after his mothers death. Thus his strong desire to prove himself to his father and brother. For the first time in his life, Miggy garners the gumption to apologize and this new-found humility opens up a whole new world of “firsts” for Miggy. With Laida's help, Miggy slowly learns to be more of a team player and the true value of loyalty

<>

Cast and Characters

Actor/Actress	Role
Sarah Geronimo	Laida Magtalas
John Lloyd Cruz	Miggy Montenegro
Dante Rivero	Luis Montenegro
Rowell Santiago	Art Montenegro
Johnny Revilla	Roger Montenegro
Bing Pimentel	Alice Montenegro
Daphne Oseña-Paez	Anya Montenegro
Al Tantay	Tomas Magtalas
Irma Adlawan	Baby Magtalas
Miles Ocampo	Rose Magtalas
Andre Garcia	Lio Magtalas
Matet De Leon	Zoila
Gio Alvarez	Vincent
Joross Gamboa	John Rae

Soundtrack

Title	Performed by	Composed by	Published by
A Very Special Love	Sarah Geronimo	Michael Lloyd	Warner/Chappel Music Philippines
Kailan	Cast	Ryan Cayabyab	Filscap
Ngiti	Ronnie Liang	Vince Katinday and Tito Rapadas	Universal Records