Movie Review

                                    My Wife & I

My wife & I…...a comedy drama piece, written, directed and produced by Chinaza Onuzo, Bunmi Ajakaiye and Inkblot Production respectively. The trio teamed up to create a very predictable body-swap story in an insightful and humorous manner.

It is a story of a couple, Ebere (Omoni Oboli) and Toyosi (Ramsey Noah), who was faced with the challenge of who to play whose role in their marriage for the longest of times. Ebere’s Mum (Ngozi Nwosu), in the usual African mother element, insists that their challenge can only be resolved through a spiritual intervention; she then introduces them to a reliable pastor, Pastor Theophilus (Seyi Law). The action of the movie sets in when the couple make the visit to the Pastor: They went in with the challenge of role play and came out with a totally different challenge: a couple whose spirits were trapped in each other’s body. Learning how to live as the other person would either result to a marital bliss or doom.

Also entertaining and enthralling the viewers were world class actors like: AMVCA’s best actor, Sambasa Nzeribe and a face we have been itching to see for a long time, Rachael Oniga.

This movie proves that the zealous Nollywood producers would go under any rock in search of new and fresh stories, hypothetically. Although the tale of a body swap has been told countless times by Hollywood, it still does not erase the fact that it is a fresh idea in the Nollywood scene and being able to make it our own, is highly commendable.      

                                        

The plot of this movie is very thought-provoking as it addresses a critical mayhem that has now flooded our society and that of the world in general. It beams a bright light on the trials and tribulations faced in marriages; the height of struggle couples go through to remain united and how these affects the minds of the children.

Sadly, the one question that troubles my mind each time I watch most of the recent Nollywood moviesairing at the box office, came pumping even harder as I watched this one: Are the knots at the end of every corner of the production of Nollywood movies too hard for us to untie? Because the errors seen in most films are annoyingly glaring.

I mean, it takes most ladies five to six years to learn how to properly walk on high heels and Ramsey Noah, in Omoni’s body, struggles with heels-wearing in about three to four scenes and miraculously learns how to walk on them well, too well that he effortlessly cat walked, ran on stairs and crossed the road on HEELS! How is this possible? Why did he even have to wear heels? Why did he not just do flat shoes or flipflops? Movies are supposed to be make believe and in real life ladies who struggle with heels wearing, comfortably put on flats and they look just as cool as those with high heels.

Again, Ramsey Noah is such a beautiful actor, just not beautiful enough to play the role of a lady. Apart from whining his waist in two to three scenes, he was more of a man throughout the movie than he was a woman.  

Finally, the length of the movie. It would either be one of two things: The need to show off the splendid idea of a body swap story; or, the director was given a time span to cover and he just had to fill up gaps with a lot of unnecessary scenes. Whichever the case maybe, it did not work well with the audience, as people gradually left the hall as each scene dragged on. The ones who stayed back, filled the hall with hisses and complaints as they watched. It was as though they only stayed back to get good value for their money and with an economy like Nigeria, every one naira spent has to prove its worth.

In my opinion, the whole body swap saga should have ended the moment the couple had sex and this would have put to an end to the overly evident struggle faced by the characters to play each other’s role.

On the brighter side, this movie had no drone shot and this was a breath of fresh air as the new Nollywood, like I like to call it, has slowly created the mindset that a drone shot is a necessity for a good movie.

The characters:

With each movie Omoni Oboli features in, she makes one thing clear: that she is a diamond in the dirt. Where on earth has this new Omoni been hiding? The vigor and tenacity she infused into the character Ebere, who had to be a man for most of the movie, was very impressing. A lot more Omoni’s in movies will do us more good than none.

It is no doubt that Ramsey Noah is a sensational actor, so something must have been wrong with him in this movie, because he was just not believable. He has been a man for most of his life, so I can understand his struggle with playing this role. The sad part is that, I can cook up all the excuses and reasons for his nonperformance, but I cannot erase the fact that acting is simply make believe and he did a not so impressing job with this one.

Sambasa Nzeribe won the award for best actor for one reason: There is still yet to be a character that he would not be able to pull off. Whether he has to play a miscreant, as was his role in The Wedding Party, or a low-life electronic seller, he delivers with an exceptional charisma. Thumbs up.

The daughter made Ebere and Toyosi look like really horrible parents, who could not properly raise a teenage girl; but, who would blame them? They had more issues with themselves to deal with for them to notice her ill manners.

In conclusion, the movie was witty and somewhat enlightening. On a scale of zero to five, this baby girl gives this movie a THREE, because it sure takes more than the interpretation of roles for a movie to be good. The message this movie passed is very relevant to our present society and the costumes, makeup, set design and soundtrack put in a strong effort to compensate us for the loose ends this movie had. I recommend this movie to you, if you are more interested in the message of a movie than any other thing a movie has to offer.

Watch the movie Trailer here

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……….Talk2urHommie……….