Here Comes the Groom 2023

Rodrigo Sr., Keempee de Leon, his wife Salve, [Gladys Reyes], and their children Rodrigo Jr. Enchong Dee and Blesilda Maris Racal are a visibly devout Roman Catholic family who dedicate their lives to service at their parish church. The eldest son, known to friends and family as Junior, is busy preparing for an upcoming wedding to his fiancée Yumi Miles Ocampo. The peace of their routine is a portrait of routine faith and tradition, with each member playing a role in keeping the family’s rituals intact. The scene is gentle, almost ceremonial, until an unexpected encounter disrupts their path.

On the way to a resort for the wedding, they cross paths with a group of drag performers headed to a beauty pageant. The group includes Mama Wendy [Iyah Mina], and her wards Wanda [Xilhouete], Wilhelmina [Jervi KaladKaren Wrightson], Winona [Nico Antonio], and their trainer Whitney [Awra Briguela]. Rodrigo’s reaction is swift and sharp, a barrage of homophobic slurs that ricochets through the car as the family struggles to understand this bold display of queer performance. The tension between judgment and curiosity sets the tone for what follows, casting a long shadow over the day’s events. The trip continues toward the Magnetic Hill, where a solar eclipse is about to unfold, a moment that will bend more than just light.

A sudden, terrifying collision changes everything. Mama Wendy’s vehicle careens out of control and slams head-on into Rodrigo’s car, setting off a chain of astonishing consequences. When Rodrigo regains consciousness, he discovers he is in Wanda’s body, while Wanda finds herself trapped in Rodrigo’s. The swap inspires instant chaos and fear—Rodrigo’s first instinct is to lash out, now in Wanda’s form, while Wanda, inhabiting his body, is left to navigate a fearsome unfamiliarity with startling vulnerability. The old dynamic between the two families becomes a battleground of identity, authority, and fear as each tries to chart a new path forward.

As the body-swapping shock settles into a grim new reality, the story tightens its focus on the characters rearranged by the accident. Blesilda, now inhabiting Whitney’s body, prays for forgiveness, misreading her rebirth as divine punishment for her and her family. Her former courage softens into a complicated ache for a second chance. Whitney, meanwhile, is ecstatic at first, flaunting a wild, liberated energy that wins salvos of attention from Salve, only to confront the painful reality of dysmenorrhea and bodily pain that her new form imposes. Junior, occupying Wilhelmina’s body, escapes a group of drunken, transphobic men with surprising boldness but cannot slip past the wedding venue’s doors. Wilhelmina, living in Junior’s body, feels the sting of a changed appearance and avoids the unwanted advances of an unsuspecting Yumi. Yet a surprising new ally emerges when Wilhelmina, inhabiting Junior’s form, develops a curiosity for Sean—Junior’s best friend and the wedding’s best man—creating a delicate triangle that hums with unspoken feelings.

Joy, Salve’s cousin and barangay chairman, enters the fray as a pragmatic voice of reason and a stabilizing force. Eugene Domingo brings a warm practicality to the chaos, helping to orchestrate a plan that might save the wedding and untangle the mess before it becomes irrevocable. Together with Joy, Rodrigo, Blesilda, and Mama Wendy eventually reach the resort. They collide with Salve, Wanda, and Wilhelmina/Junior in a mall confrontation that reveals the truth behind Whitney’s past—Whitney is an orphan who yearned for a family and belonging—and the reality that this whole swap is more complicated than simple mischief. The moment also crystallizes the emotional stakes for everyone involved: a wedding and a family’s pride are on the line.

As the drama converges at the resort, Junior reenters the venue’s perimeter to confront Sean, who is on the verge of kissing Wilhelmina while Salve and Joy arrive to witness the shifting tides of identity and affection. Rodrigo, in Wanda’s body, erupts with a torrent of homophobic rhetoric, driving the group to consider quitting the pageant. Yet the gays’ resilience wins out: Junior, emboldened by the new perspective, urges his family to stay and help him salvage the wedding. In a collaborative, courageous decision, the family agrees to compete on their behalf, and the pageant’s crown goes to Winona as a signal that appearances can be deceptive and love can bridge divides. The event becomes a stage where the real triumph is not a beauty pageant win but a display of acceptance and solidarity.

In this new arrangement, Wilhelmina—still in Junior’s body—refines a truth freely spoken: Sean’s feelings are real, and Junior recognizes them with maturity, choosing to affirm Sean’s identity while reaffirming his own love for Yumi. He commits to stay friends with Sean and to support him in finding his own happiness, even as he remains devoted to Yumi. The wedding night arrives with an uneasy mixture of longing and honesty. Yumi tries to consummate the marriage in Junior’s body, only to be gently stopped when the truth becomes undeniable. She recognizes the depth of Junior’s care and affection for her, and she accepts him—not in the body she expected, but for the person he is.

To restore order, Mama Wendy asks for help from a fellow resort guest, Kuya Kim, who explains that a soul-swap occurred during the solar eclipse at Magnetic Hill, an event that last happened thirteen years earlier. The only way to reverse it is to repeat the accident during the next solar eclipse—seven years into the future. With this knowledge, Rodrigo, Salve, Junior, Blesilda, Mama Wendy, Wanda, Wilhelmina, and Whitney resolve to wait together in Rodrigo’s house and endure seven long years until the celestial event returns to bridge their souls back to their proper bodies.

When the long-awaited moment finally arrives, the group faces a new dawn with cautious hope. The film closes on a scene of Rodrigo’s family singing karaoke alongside their gay neighbors, a testament to their newfound acceptance and unity. Blesilda, still learning to let go, dances with a wild, uncertain energy that hints at the future’s possibilities.

This story blends humor with tenderness, showing that identity, faith, and love can coexist with humility and humor, even in the most improbable of circumstances. It’s a celebration of connection—within families, among friends, and across communities—that finds its heartbeat in the courage to choose empathy over fear.