What Lies Within.
What Lies Within is a
thriller that features a range of beautiful actors like: Ebele Okaro – Onyuike,
Michelle Dede, Paul Utomi, Vanessa Nzediegwu and a host of others. Vanessa
Nzediegwu and Paul Utomi, teamed up to create this very draggy, but suspenseful
film.
What Lies Within is a
24-hour chronicle of the life of a young woman, Ireti (Vanessa Nzediegwu) who
has been constantly abused, both physically and emotionally by her husband,
Brian (Ken Erics). This faithful morning, she placed a call through to her
friend and sister-in-law, Fiona (Michelle Dede) and their lives
changed for the
worse. What they had to do, will have a far-reaching consequence on them and
the lives of their loved ones.
This is yet another
insightful plot. With a bit of humor, this movie touches on some deep societal
issues like: The trauma and repercussion that comes with domestic abuse; And
the impact of an unhealthy family relationship, between parents and their
children’s spouses.
There is certainly a
reform in the cinematography of the present day Nollywood movies. The
perfection in camera shots and lighting that now flood the scenes of new
movies, is refreshing and most welcomed. And this movie sees no exception to
this.
The one scene that had
us all fired up and alive, was the scene where Brian was beating Ireti and
Fiona. My goodness! You needed to have heard us at the cinema; each slap and
kick that landed on Fiona’s face and butt met screams of ouch! And hey! As though
it was real, or it was landing on our bodies. That scene is unarguably the most
believable scene I have seen in any Nollywood movie. I kept saying to myself,
“There is no way the child in Fiona’s womb will survive all this punches and
kicks”; but sadly, the director did nothing to clear me up on that.
The makeup and
soundtrack was very appropriate, perfectly complimenting the theme of the movie.
Unfortunately, there
were a lot of offs in this movie, like:
The totally unnecessary
twist the movie had. It was clear that there was an intent to wow the audience
with suspense, but the story was just not strong enough to bare all the twist
and suspense the movie had;
The frustrating repetition
of scenes; again, this is totally attributed to the need to twist up the story,
but it ended up tiring the audience.
Now, how was it that the
door knob to the very famous restroom was broken at the beginning of the movie
and midway into the movie, the door automatically repaired itself and could
open?
The annoyingly obvious
disregard of Ireti’s black eye and reddish, watery eyeballs. I mean, how does a
Doctor see her sister-in-law in such a state and could not just figure out that
she had been battered, Really?
And finally, how the
movie ended. Was that supposed to be a way to make the Nigerian police look
good? Or were the police part of the audience with the Almighty power to know
things that almost everyone who featured in the movie did not know? Like how
was Fiona the only culprit? What happened to Ireti? We deserved a lot of
explaining at this point and a whole lot of unnecessary scenes should have been
chopped to afford the director time enough to clear this part up. I am trying hard not to give too many
spoilers here, so if you see this movie and get this point, please hit me in
the comment section, so we can discuss this particular part.
The characters:
Vanessa Nzediegwu, needs
to the applauded for being able direct the movie and still deliver a very
believer act at the same time. One could feel the pain of domestic violence by
just watching her. The tears, the fear, her confusion, her whole character was
very believable.
The role Michelle Dede
played was a gift to her, I must say. She was the right partner in crime. She was
the kind of person you would do bad deals with and be sure she had you covered,
even when you did not have your own back. She played her role so effortlessly,
I was almost convinced that is what real life holds for her.
Ebele Okaro-Onyuike was
the true definition of an annoying and choking mother-in-law. I would like to
say that towards the end of the movie, her character became unnecessarily too
much, but I have not been married before, neither do I pray for such a
mother-in-law, so I cannot pass this judgement.
Tope Tedela was a good
pick for the role of a jonzing and an
intimidated Pastor. He was refreshing to watch.
All other characters
were okay.
In conclusion, the movie
was an insightful, but tiringly slow one. On a scale from zero to five, this
baby girl gives this movie a TWO AND A
HALF, because as much as I loved the characters, there were a whole lot of
offs I found very distasteful in this movie. I recommend this movie to you, if
you only care about for a clean shot film, with good character execution.
Go, see the movie, have
fun and tell me what you feel about it in the comment section below. #Wink
Full Cast
Tope Tedela – Gboyega
Ebele Okaro-Onyuike – Mama
Odenike Odetola – Esther
Okey Uzoeshi – Derrick
Ken Erics – Brian
Paul Utomi – Barry
Kiki Omeili – Miss Dimeji
Vanessa Nzediegwu – Ireti
Michelle Dede – Fiona
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……….Talk2urHommie……….
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