Starring: Chioma Akpotha, Frederick Leonard, Kalu Ikeagwu

Synopsis:

A man seeks counsel from a lawyer hoping to end his marriage but things take a turn for the worst when his wife is murdered and all clues point to him.

Trailer Courtesy of Teco Benson

Review:

After a mere fifteen months of marriage, Chike (Frederick Leonard) sought to divorce his wife due to a lack of sexual gratification. He pled his case to Chy (Chioma Akpotha), a lawyer that he recently had a one-night affair with.

It turns out that Chike’s wife was coincidently murdered on the very night that he cheated. He was detained by the authorities as a suspect in the case. The police believed that his intent to divorce was a motive for murder and Chike was put in a position of having to prove his innocence.

The question of the day became where was Chike on the night his wife was murdered? This placed his lawyer/lover in a precarious situation because she was a married woman. If she admitted to the court that she spent that night with him, she would serve as a concrete alibi but she would also put her marriage on the line. Decisions, decisions…

Let’s Talk. This is a suspense drama about a woman that was faced with the dilemma of allowing her lover to go to prison or risk losing her husband (Kalu Ikeagwu). With a confession at the root of the situation, Chy’s reputation was at stake as a woman of the church and a professional at law.

The court seemed more focused on where Chike was when his wife was murdered than obtaining irrefutable evidence. Even if Chy admitted that she was with Chike all night it would have only proved his whereabouts, not his innocence. Criminals are smart enough to set up their alibis before having someone else commit their crimes. We’ve seen this time and time again.

Here’s the most bothersome detail of the story. We have Chy, a Christian and a very married woman who is eight weeks pregnant for her husband. Why on earth would she sleep with Chike? In order to understand this character the screenwriter needed to convey what it was that made her desire Chike. Their relationship leading to that night is significant information that’s missing from the story.

Chy admitted to having four orgasms during her one-nighter with Chike. Now let’s think about this…Four orgasms. Homeboy must have been something special. If he was capable of such results in bed then why didn’t his wife want to sleep with him? Why was she always at her mother’s house? He referred to his wife as an “iceberg” yet he had the skills to light her fire. Something doesn’t quite add up. With his kind of talent his wife should have been all over him 24/7.

Moreover, if sex was so important to Chike then why did he marry a frigid woman? Didn’t he test the waters before he married her? The movie didn’t have any scenes that displayed Chike with his wife so, once again, the audience was deprived of the relationships that made up the story.

Taking matters even further, Chy confessed that she had only known about orgasms through reading books. Hmm…sounds like she had grounds for a divorce herself. If she finally found a guy that was responsible for her first orgasm then why was she so cold toward him the next day? She was too nonchalant about what transpired the night before and it’s indeed something to be excited about. I didn’t quite get Chy’s hot and cold attitude toward Chike. That scene was in need of better direction.

The upside of the story presented itself when Chike feared a prison sentence and threatened to tell the court that he was with Chy on the night in question. This brought great conflict to the story because it blurred the lines of lover confidentiality and lawyer/client confidentiality.

The question of the day became whether or not it was ethical for Chy to represent Chike. As his divorce attorney she had already begun to betray his trust when her ulterior motive was to save his marriage. He wanted out yet she secretly advocated for his wife when he was her client. That was a conflict of interest. Yes, her heart was in the right place but Chike’s intentions should have been her only objective.

One scene worth mentioning was the one where Chy was almost hit by a car. The driver actually got out and yelled some sexually charged rhetoric and then had the audacity to tell her that she needed to get f*cked. Umm…excuse me? Obviously, HE needed to. Somebody should have given that guy a hug. The character overreacted and the actor overacted. I’m puzzled at the purpose of that scene. As far as I can see it was tacky, pointless, and didn’t enhance the movie.

It appears that the writer was going for a suspense drama and intentionally led us on, teased us, and made us believe what we wanted to. Just when we thought we knew where the story was headed we got sideswiped. This is a good thing in terms of storytelling but somehow the outcome wasn’t thrilling enough. Also, the story ended with a cliffhanger that robbed the audience of a sense of closure.

The best thing about this movie? Chioma Akpotha. It was all about her character and it’s her performance that drove the movie. Her feelings of conflict, fear, and guilt brought raw emotion to the story. Filmmakers could never go wrong with Kalu Ikeagwu and Frederick Leonard gave a respectable performance as well. I actually liked his portrayal of Chike. He has so much going on when you look into his eyes.

By the way, “Accident” won the Bayelsa State Government Endowed Award for Best Nigerian Film at the 2014 AMAA’s and was nominated for several others. We’re all entitled to our opinions (and that’s all it is) but after viewing this movie, my opinion is that it just made average.

Despite the story flaws and the questions the movie provoked it does manage to create intrigue and it strings the audience along as planned. The problem lies in the fact that the story needed to be fleshed out a little more.

It’s not clear why the movie is called “Accident.” The outcome of the story is contingent upon a confession therefore a more appropriate title would have been something with the word  “Confession” in it. Honestly, the movie wasn’t painful to watch. The acting sufficed but the story could have been tighter. EJECT

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