Starring: Van Vicker, Ruth Kadiri, Juliet Ibrahim

Synopsis:
A young woman’s inability to balance home and career becomes her downfall when her husband, feeling neglected, seeks attention elsewhere.

Review: I.T. (Ruth Kadiri) is an ambitious businesswoman that often kept late hours. Her husband, Dave (Van Vicker), grew weary of her hectic schedule and diminishing attention to the family. Picking up their daughter from school was also problematic so Dave offered the teacher, Ify (Juliet Ibrahim) the job of escorting their daughter home. 

Arguments at home led Dave to seek solace in Ify and the two became romantically involved. Soon I.T. noticed a change in Dave’s behavior and one evening she decided to follow him. She was shocked to discover the affair but making matters worse was Ify’s life changing announcement.

Let’s Talk. Reviewing movies has almost become a joke because I keep seeing the same stories with different titles. Once again, we have a love triangle where wifey-poo neglected hubbie-poo and he strayed and found a new honey-poo. The question became whether the new honey would become the wife. New story? I think not.

The I.T. character was the Black Bride because she wasn’t the typical, old school, type of wife. She didn’t cook, she kept late hours, and she barely had time for her child and husband. He eventually strayed and blamed her for his infidelity.

The movie had mixed messages. On one hand, it shows that women can have careers and a family although the main character had issues juggling both. On the other hand, the same career woman got on her knees to beg the “other woman” to help save her marriage. Which woman was she? She appeared to be powerful and powerless at the same time. It makes for an interesting character but it was disturbing to watch a married couple give so much control to the side chick. Absolutely ridiculous.

The dialogue was indicative that men are the prize and women should feel lucky to have them. It speaks to the man shortage while relaying the narrative that men are a commodity while women are a dime a dozen. Therefore, relationships are doomed day one in terms of equal footing.

The movie is written and produced by Ruth Kadiri and it’s almost as though she set out to discourage women from having affairs with married men. True or not, it’s valid advice because these illicit relationships are risky on many levels. At times the “other woman” is treated like a condom – used and discarded as some men say just about anything to get some extracurricular coochie. The flip side is that there are times when the side chick does walk away with the man however, relationships that commence on the wrong track can derail. 

I’m a firm believer in that “the way you met him is the way you’ll lose him.” If a man cheated to be with a woman, odds are he’ll cheat again. And the same goes for cheating women. How does anyone trust a man or woman that cheated on their spouse anyway? The truth is that nothing can stop two people who are attracted to each other, married or not, except for one of the two parties involved.

What was noteworthy in the story was that the threesome came together to hash things out. In these situations emotions run high and problems are not usually amicably resolved so this was actually an effective visual to digest.

Performances? I love me some Van Vicker. From the time I saw him in Beyonce, I’ve watched his career blossom. Ruth Kadiri is a competent actress and I commend her for writing, producing, and providing work for others. 

To surmise, there really wasn’t anything new or exciting about this production. I can accept typical storylines if there’s a different twist or some sort of element that makes it more enticing but this was just another run of the mill infidelity movie. EJECT