Movie Review: Deepest of Dreams

Title: Deepest of Dreams

Starring:Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, Majid Michel, Tonto Dike Geredine Ekeocha, Prince Eke

Producer: Azuka Odgngkwe

Director: Tchidi Chikere

Story/screenplay: Tchidi Chikere

Year of production: 2009

Genre: Drama

Language: English

Country: Nigeria.


Preamble: Tchidi is a very inconsistent writer and director. Sometimes he slams it out of the park and sometimes, he screws things up. Let me by saying that in my opinion, this was a slam dunk, a grand slam, a home run! What I wonder though, is why he had to give such a good movie such a ridiculous name. Who names these things? I almost did not watch it. And yet, what a good movie it turned out to be!

Story: Catherine (Omotola Jalade Ekehinde) is a young girl who lives with her mother (Geredine Ekeocha) and her sister Debbie (Tonto Dike). Problem is, Catherine has been badly disfigured in a car accident that killed her father and left her with facial scars and a bad limp. Now she considers herself ugly and suffers from very low self esteem. Her situation is not helped by her beautiful sister Debbie who misses no opportunity to put her down. Into this dysfunctional setting walks the very handsome and rich Omar (Majid Michel) who for some inexplicable reason seems to be very attracted to the ugly duckling Catherine, much to Debbie’s chagrin. How does it work out for the three of them?

Trailer (although this trailer is pretty bad - a cut and join job if you ask me. Makes no sense!!)



Review
Positives: Omotola is one of Africa’s top actresses for a reason – she can act. SHE CAN ACT! Dang!! I loved her in this movie – loved her. Her vulnerability, her self loathing - there were times she almost moved me to tears. She was clearly the star of this flick. I cannot lie – she pulled it off big time. I have never been a big fan of Tonto Dike’s but with performances like this, she is starting to win me over. She was excellent as the beautiful spoilt brat of a sister with clear feelings of entitlement. And Majid – sauve, handsome, compassionate and yet, conflicted – veeeery nice! I loved the casting of this movie. Honestly, I have no complaints about any single cast member. Even the doctor (Prince Okah), I think did really well. Most delightful!
I loved the story. While it was kinda cheesy, it was also very sweet, and yet not totally predictable. I did not really expect some of the events that took place, so I really liked that. I loved the fact that Tchidi was able to take a very simple story, requiring such few cast members, and yet make something so engaging out of it. Good job.

Negatives: First, Omotola’s make up. Yeah it made her look funny, but why was the supposed burn green? Abi was it just my eyes? It was green!! They needed to do a better job with the burn victim story and associated make up. Haba!! Secondly, Tchidi needs a better camera. Yes, the pink spot is gone, but his camera is definitely not the same standard as the one Vivian Ejike used in Silent Scandals. That was a pretty film visually. In this one, the picture quality not as crisp. Tchidi, you need a new camera!!
Thirdly, while I have heard frequent complaints about Tchidi singing in all his movies, I have not really seen his stuff of recent. Well, in this one, we were subjected to the dude singing some really corny tune, while basically telling the story of the movie. Too cheap to pay someone to write and sing a decent sound track? Na wah o.
And then, as I earlier mentioned, there is the stupid name of this movie. Eventually, I figured out why they gave it that name, but its still stupid – honestly. If you take the time to make such a good movie, then take the time to name it properly!

There were also some scenes that were too long - of Catherine walking all over the place for instance - normal Naija movie problems.

In general though – darned good movie. Very nice. I highly recommend it.

Themes and Worldview: This is what I loved most about this movie – its realistic depiction of the role of physical attractiveness in getting people through even the more mundane activities in life. There is a powerful scene where Omotola’s character weeps as she wonders why nobody sees past her ugliness and sees the person inside, why noone believes that any good thing can happen to her. “I am a good person; I am still here” she wept. It was touching, and it hit me on a visceral level, because we are all guilty of this: judging people by what we see – beauty and race being the most obvious characteristics. The film so artfully captured the pain suffered by people who are rejected for attributes they have no control over. Very touching. And even beyond art, the themes in this movie have some powerful real world applications: For instance, study after study have shown that better looking people get better jobs, and are likely to be treated better in general

As one character in the movie said “Yes, beauty is only skin deep, but no one told me how deep that skin is.” In other words, we are all potentially very shallow people, ignoring the person inside because of the outer packaging. Even in the bible, GOD had to teach the same lesson to one of his prophets saying “man looks at the outward appearance, but GOD looks at the heart”.

Great story, powerful lesson, much food for thought.

Rating: 8/10.

More reviews available here and here.

Availability: Big three.

Movie Review: For Real

Title: For real

Starring: Dakore Egbuson, Eucharia Anunobi, Desmond Elliot, Kalu ikeagwu, Justus Esiri, Remi Abiola, Ekwi Owuneme

Producer(s): Emem Isong

Director: Aquilla Njamah

Year of production: 2005

Country: Nigeria

Genre: Drama/Romance

Language: English


Preamble: First let me admit that I came upon this one by accident. I stumbled on it one day when I was slacking off. I was going to ignore it, but then I checked it out and it appeared to have garnered rave reviews, though I had never seen it, or even heard of it. So I watched it. Holy Moly!! FA BU LOUS. One of my very favorite Nigerian movies ever! EVER! It was engaging, interesting, intriguing, realistic, very well done. I dropped everything I was doing, and could not stop watching. It sucked me right in.


Trailer:


Summary: Eucharia Anunobi plays Divine, a widowed mother of one, and she is in Abuja on business. There she meets David Salako (played by Kalu), a much younger man who persistently pursues her. She gives in after some objections (and some alcohol), and they have a one night stand. He leaves her his number but she decides never to see him again. She has no interest in keeping it going. All she wanted to do was scratch her itch and live out some fantasies. After she returns to Lagos where she is based, her son (played by Desmond Elliot) comes home with his fiancée (Ekwi) from the UK, She has a party to celebrate his graduation and his intended nuptials, and meet his friends. She has the shock of her life when her son’s best friend turns out to be someone she has met before. Things become very, very interesting.

Review
Positives: Please do not be put off by the really bad title. It does this great work no justice at all. I would have called this one the Couger, or Old Wine (better with age), or something like that. Looks like someone just pulled the title out of their nose “For Real”!! Having said that though, this was Kalu’s first movie (as he states here ), and that is darned impressive! Boy did he act the living daylights out of this role. What talent, what swagger, what charm! Two thumbs way up for this role. In fact, everyone impressed me. Eucharia was fantastic as the cougar struggling with the social ramifications of loving a young buck, Desmond was fierce as the overprotective son, Dakore was fabulous as David’s fiancé, and Ekwi was just so pretty as Angela, Divine’s daughter-in-law to be. The casting for this movie was almost perfect. I especially loved Mrs Remi Abiola (RIP) in the role of Mrs Salako, looking out for her son. When her big scene came up, I paid attention. She was regal, and angry, and she worked it. This movie – it was great!! I did not use the fast forward button once on this movie. Not once. No wasted scenes. Even the “I love you” toritese (head and leg) scenes were bearable.

Negatives: The weak link was the guy who was chasing after Dakore’s character. First of all, he was so not necessary to the development of the story. Second of all, the guy cannot act to save his life, his diction was bad, and I just could not figure out what he was doing in there! Also, they spent a lot of time talking about David buying a car, and then you finally see the car and you are like – really? That’s it? Blah!! Of course, as in many Nigerian movies, you had to do the volume thing – turn it up for conversations, turn it down when someone was shouting. And the picture quality could have been better.

Lessons/Worldview: I love this movie, I will not lie. It is so well done. I have watched it several times, and I just loved it more and more each time!! I would not claim that it teaches any deep life changing lessons – except to provide yet another argument against indiscriminate sex!! – But it does lead to interesting questions about Cougar relationships. So we expect that in relationships, the man be older than the woman, or they be close in age, at least in the African context. When the woman is much older, is it unbearable? When is an age difference too much? Or does it really depend on the individuals involved? Is love enough in non traditional relationships? This issue is discussed in more detail here

Other reviews of this movie can be found here

RATING: 8/10

AVAILABILITY: Unfortunately, I don’t know where you can get an original copy of this movie in the diaspora. I apologise. I hype it so much and it is unavailable. Your options are either you buy a copy in Nigeria (if you can), or you can call and ask any of the big three if they have it. Sorry.