STRENGTH OF LOVE
Producer – Adim Williams
Director - Adim
Williams
Actors – Stephanie Okereke, Kenneth Okonkwo, Sola Sobowale,
Bruno Iwouha etc.
Love seems the bye word now in Nollywood. Everyone here
wants to shoot a love-based story. No sin though but what is particularly
amusing is their choice of titles and at the rate they are going they may soon
run out of them. Saw one during the week titled “love disappointment’. It
merely shows that the movie is in dire need of those who can cast very good
titles.
Anyway here is one of the many love-based stories but Adim
Williams safely titles this “Strength of Love”. Someone actually described it
as a movie I could not ignore. I took the advice and I was somewhat rewarded
even though this interpretation (because it has a number of predecessors) fails
to make it to the lofty perch attained by its predecessors.
The story in brief: A slight brush brings Richard (Kenneth
Okonkwo) and Ifeoma (Stephanie Okereke) together. Predictably they fall in
love. Richard, a banker proposes marriage but George Ojukwu (Bruno Iwouha)
Ifeoma’s wealthy father who despises bankers because he has his money trapped
in a failed bank would not hear anything of such. Way down, Richard is framed
for fraud and detained. This sets the stage for the true test of love. And
Stephanie did not do badly at all. Well somehow Richard gets out of jail.
Ifeoma provides the lead that enabled him to foot the medical bills of his
mother. The Ojukwu’s accept him as son in law and yip the movie ends.
A far more interesting version even though with a whiff of
anti-climax and a pace that is less frantic, ‘Strength of Love’ has the
emotional subtlety, which a few of its predecessors lack. Adim exhibited good
directorial vision but the picture quality dropped especially in terms of
composition and angles at some point and each time he hopped on set to play the
lawyer. Why does he think he must act in all the movies he directs?
Anyway see it. It’s watchable. Ayo Emmanuel that cop in very
movie finds something else here. But it appears that he acts better anytime he
is playing a cop. Now whose off the set voice was that in that scene where
Richard was typing?
SOUND OF SILENCE
Producer- Emeka Label
Director- John Uche
Actors- Robert Peters, Emeka Okolo, Maureen Ihua, Rycardo
Agbo, Chidi Mokeme, Zack Orji, Omotola Ekeinde and others
The actor and host of the Gulder ultimate reality show earns
his first lead this seasons in this Lion Base production directed by John Uche.
Chidi plays Michael in this well thought out but improbably told story that may
have been inspired by the success of that Tade Ogidan engaging account
‘Dangerous Twins’.
Michael is not comfortable with Martha’s nagging posture at
home. If Martha (Omotola Ekeinde) isn’t nagging, she would be pulling calls to
her boyfriend Sammy (Emeka Okolo). Its Sammy’s birthday that weekend and he
wants her out. Martha is in a fix because it’s her husband’s birthday too. The
only escape for her is to get her twin sister Miriam whom we later met in the
story to play ‘Martha at home’ for just that weekend. Miriam agrees but she is
stuck in Michael hands after Martha’s reported demise. Though Miriam played on,
it was later discovered that she was only putting up for Martha. She is confirmed
pregnant but Michael would not have anything to do with it. However after so
much persuasion he shows up at the maternity ward and the movie ends.
This is good. It resembles a spinning top. John Uche who
called the shots here approached it with some sense of style. He also showed a
resolute ability to blend actors and an ability to keep his director of
photography busy. But this telling left a few of us phewing at the end. Though
it was predicated on an interesting concept, the flick belched from that point
where we were never given a glimpse of Miriam’s life before the switch. May be
that would have made it possible for us to appreciate the twinning game and to
reckon with that scene where a chap (Robert Peters) who claims to be Miriam’s
boyfriend showed up and threatened to spill the milk. Not only that we found it difficult to buy into that
‘boyfriend add on’ a clear after thought, we found it improbable too to believe
that the chap who played Miriam and Martha’s uncle, (the role was played by Zack
Orji) could not tell the differences between his nieces almost a year down the
line. We can pardon that of Michael. It is possible that he might be too dazed
to begin to look out for distinguishing features but not the Uncle who as we
were made to understand raised the girls.
Acting was not in short demand here. In fact that’s the real
victory for this flick that would have worked pretty well had the crew paid
attention to details and the structure of the flick.
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