Movie Review: The Darkest Link 1, 2 & 3.

Title: The Darkest link 1, 2 & 3.

Starring: Francis Duru, Mercy Johnson, Remmy Ohajianya, Mary Uranta, Barry Luke, Biola Ige

Screenplay: Chisom Juliet Okereke

Director: Ikechukwu Onyeka

Producer: Kingsley Okereke, Ikechukwu Onyeka, Emeka Igwemba

Year: 2009

Country: Nigeria

Genre: Drama/ Supernatural thriller

Language: English


Preview: I bought this in a state of boredom and then promptly suffered from buyer’s remorse. I was so sure that I was going to hate it. Let’s just say that it eventually started to grow on me.

Trailer:



Synopsis: Francis Duru plays Ray, a guy who has just gotten engaged to Lisa (Mercy Johnson). They are celebrating the engagement when he collapses with a heart attack, and is rushed to the hospital. After mouthing some medical mumbo jumbo (that did not sound that accurate to me actually), the doctor finally tells his fiancée Lisa that his heart is damaged and he needs a heart transplant if he is to survive. Lisa cries a lot and does all she can, but all hope seems lost. Out of the blue however, a heart is found, donated by anonymous sources, and Ray survives. When he gets home from the hospital however, Ray seems to be very different, and Lisa soon starts to worry. What exactly is going on with him?



Review
Positives: I was pretty sure I was gonna hate this movie, so even though I have had it for several weeks, I only just popped it into dvd player last night because I needed some background noise for some work I was doing. And it seemed like the first 30 minutes proved me right – excruciatingly bad. However, 3 things save this movie from being a total waste of time, and make it worthy of being reviewed on this site:

a) An unusual and very intriguing storyline – I am going to start off by congratulating the writer of the screenplay (Chisom Juliet Okereke) for this story, if it is original. I apologize for having to add that caveat, but there is a lot of copying in Nollywood unfortunately. However, that is another story for another day. I really liked this story – creative, interesting, taking the road less traveled. Nice!
b) Mercy Johnson: First of all, when she was not over displaying her ample cleavage, Ms. Johnson looked really good in this movie. Not only was she looking lovely, she was fierce as an actress. FIERCE! I really enjoyed her performance.
c) Barry Luck Uche (It says Barry Luke on the dvd sleeve), so I am not sure which is right. He played the role of Sam, the heart donor. Of all the miscasting done in the this movie, this guy was a gem – perfect peg in a perfect hole. I found his performance extremely intriguing. He has the gift that the greatest actors have – the ability to do things with his face while not saying much. First time seeing him, and I am intrigued. His role was central to the movie and he played the heck out of it. Very impressive.

I will give Francis Duru an honorable mention here – he was adequate for the role, although to be honest, I would not have cast him. Something about Francis as loverboy just does not sit well with me, although as the role expanded, he seemed to get more comfortable with all he was asked to do and be.

Technically, it was fine – picture, sound quality, all okay. Things really seem to be improving in that regard with Naija film.

Negatives: Hmmm, where do I start? In the first 30 minutes, I nearly shut off the movie because it looked like rotten cheese. There were two major problems
a)Biola Ige – who played Lisa’s best friend, Emma and b) Remmy Ohajianya who played Lisa’s father. Daaaang! They were bad. In fact, the scenes where Lisa was crying and wailing about Ray and Emma had to either comfort her or talk sense into her , made up a large proportion of those first painful 30 minutes and were so baaad, I was sure that I was not going to survive the movie. If I had not been doing something else, I would have turned off the TV. Luckily I did not, because it gets so much better. Those two either need to invest in some heavy acting lessons, or they need to find another profession. Good heavens! Pure torture.

And why oh why, did they cast Francis Duru for this role? Like I said, he was adequate, but someone else could have been fantastic – I would have gone with Yemi Blaq, or Ramsey Nouah. There was very little chemistry between Francis and Mercy. When it comes to romantic scenes, when Mercy is feeling the dude acting opposite her, she does not hold back at all – but she was obviously not feeling Francis. It wasn’t horrible, but it could have been soooo much better (sigh).

In addition, like I earlier mentioned, some of the hospital terminology was not really working for me. And neither were the hospital scenes. The life support machinery looked kinda scanty. And some of the hospital protocol observed, like giving medical diagnoses in front of some unknown best friend – blah!

Towards the end, some of it started to get irrational, illogical. We need to learn how to wrap up movies properly. Once again, as is my constant complaint, the gradual movement towards the resolution was kinda cheap. Towards the end, I begun to roll my eyes – like really? REALLY? That is your reaction? How does that make any sense???


Underlying theme/lessons/worldview/philosophy: Deciding to solve a problem by taking a selfish short cut might seem good in the short run, but leads to all kinds of complications in the long run. As the bible puts it in Prov 16:25: There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. I liked that moral and message. However, it also crossed my mind that some superstitious people (a group we have in abundance in our society) may take the events in this movie waaay too seriously and build a case against organ transplants based on that – which I doubt was the point of the movie.

Bottomline: While it seems like I am hating on it, there were parts of it that I really enjoyed. Honestly. So give it a try. You just need to get through the horrible beginning. And don’t be traumatized by the three parts. Each part is roughly an hour, so its not that bad.

Rating: 6.5/10

Availability: Big three