Starring: Ikay Ogbonna, Ini-Dima Okojie

Synopsis:
A woman is caught in a predicament when she is blackmailed into a sexual relationship with her husband’s father.

Review:
Alicia (Ini-Dima Okojie) made a living as a prostitute before she married Joseph (Ikay Ogbonna), a successful businessman. He had no idea about her past but his father did. His father was one of her regular customers and on the day that Joseph introduced her to his parents, his father was mum about his acquaintance with her. 

During the marriage, her number one paying customer, turned father-in-law, used her past to blackmail her and threatened to expose her if she didn’t continue to have sex with him. Their sexual relationship went on for years until Alicia’s friends suggested she kill him.

Let’s Talk. Well, as with every movie I have ever watched, this movie started with a score of one hundred and worked its way down. We had a woman having sex with both her husband and his father. Of course, the climax was when she got busted but the story somehow went awry.

The premise was that Alicia feared her husband would find out about her scandalous past so she allowed her father-in-law, the Chief, to blackmail her. She was a prostitute for crying out loud!! Surely, the Chief wasn’t the only man she slept with so the threat of exposure would always be there. Did she plan to quiet all the men she slept with? She made the situation worse because the problem became that she was a prostitute AND she slept with her husband’s father after she was married.

Furthermore, the Chief once paid for her services and then she gave it to him for free, for years, based on fear?? C’mon now. She might as well had made some money, right? I mean, why lower her standards? She knew how to use her body but clearly her brain was on vacation.

Here’s the key to writing characters that are, let’s say…not so bright, like Alicia. There has to be something at the root of their personality that the audience can emotionally relate to. A character can be intellectually challenged but maybe has a big heart, or an affinity for children, or maybe they give to the needy…something along those lines. Flawed characters are always more interesting but some characters won’t work without redeeming qualities, such as the Alicia character.

Having said that, I felt absolutely nothing for Alicia. Nothing! Not only was she a liar and a prostitute, she bragged to her friends about how rich Joseph was, which made her come off as an opportunist. There was nothing to like about her and both the writer and actress failed at creating empathy for the character.  

Joseph was no better because he was too naive. There were signs that something wasn’t quite right in his marriage yet he ignored the red flags.

By the story’s end, it was clear why Joseph and Alicia were a match made in heaven: they were both brainless. Just two duds in a pod.

As for story blemishes, there’s a scene where Joseph’s friend was accused of attempting to rape Alicia. (By the way, this is where the score plummeted.) The friend actually knew of Alicia’ affair with Joseph’s father so why didn’t he spill the beans and clear his name?  It’s disappointing when logic is defied and facets of a story are swept under the rug for convenience.

Also bothersome was that the story was played too close. It’s one thing if the wife is sleeping with the father-in-law but does he have to live in the same house with them? Alicia actually creeped out of her bedroom and went into the Chief’s room in the middle of the night. Really? And this is the same woman that was supposedly distraught by the situation.

Performances? Just okay.  Nothing to write home about but in fairness to the actors, they were given limiting roles.

Sound was so good that I looked up the sound person’s name – Opeyemi Okanlawon. Not only was quality sound produced, the background music didn’t interfere with dialogue because it ceased when actors spoke and then resumed. Kudos!

Another positive point was the attention to detail. Video quality was adequate and subtitles were provided where necessary.

So here’s the real bone to pick. After discovering his wife’s infractions, Joseph delivered the very last line in the movie in which he said to his wife, “I love you, ok?” She was instantly forgiven and rewarded her for deception which, is a far cry from relationship reality.

Furthermore, the movie’s assertion that a clean cut, successful husband is possible after a career of prostitution is rather contradicted by a main character that routinely struggled to keep her man. EJECT