Starring: Mike Ezuruonye, Oge Okoye, Clarion Chukwurah, Vitalis Ndubuisi, Moyo Lawal

Synopsis:

An unemployed man left no stone unturned when it came to raising money for his sister’s surgery.

Review:

Johnson (Mike Ezuruonye) was down on his luck. His sister, Mgbechi (Sarafina Amaechi), was his only living relative and she was in need of a kidney transplant. As she was hospitalized Johnson worked double shifts to raise money for her medical expenses. He was exhausted from long hours and was caught sleeping on the job and consequently fired.

Johnson was then flat broke and his girlfriend encouraged him but little did he know, another problem lurked because a wealthy man was aggressively pursuing her. 

In a separate story line, Angela (Clarion Chukwurah) was a vital middle-aged woman. She was married to Dozie (Vitalis Nbubuisi) who was impotent and no longer able to meet the demands of her libido. As their marriage suffered, Dozie thought the solution was to pay a younger man to make love to his wife. 

Coincidently, the same doctor that treated Dozie’s impotency issues also cared for Mgbechi and this is where the two storylines merged. Dozie learned of Johnson’s cash shortage and offered him the job of having sex with his wife. The only stipulation was that Dozie’s daughter was off limits.

Prior to the ludicrous job offer, Johnson had secretly resorted to a life of crime and Dozie was unaware that it was Johnson that robbed his home just days earlier. 

As the truth about the robbery lingered, Johnson satisfied Dozie’s wife. He found himself in a pickle when he breached the contract and had sex with the daughter.

Let’s Talk. This is a drama. It was slow moving at first and the story set up was time consuming. At thirty-two minutes in I was still wondering where the movie was headed. The core of the story was about Johnson, a broke man that was in search of funds to pay for his sister’s hospital bills. He basically became a male prostitute and allowed both mother and daughter to have their way with him. 

The story was ridiculous on many levels. 

• 1) Dozie not only approved of his wife having sex with a younger man but also decided that HE would choose the man. Really? I would think that his wife would want to have a say in it, maybe pick someone who she was attracted to?Translation: Clearly it was just about getting a working p*nis for his wife. Whose body it was attached to was irrelevant. 

• 2) After Angela (Dozie’s wife) had sex with Johnson (the younger man) she had the nerve to gloat about it to her husband. She had the audacity to claim that Johnson was her best lover ever. Talk about kicking a man when he’s down! Translation: Honey, even when your equipment was working…it really wasn’t. 

• 3) In reference to #2, there was no sign of awkwardness, regret, or shame from Angela when she slept with Johnson. And yes, I get that that’s who the character was but a more powerful scene between Angela and her husband after the hook-up would have been that of absolute silence. Angela should have just basked in sexual satisfaction as her husband wallowed in feelings of inadequacy. This would have been the moment where they absorbed the situation and their contrasting facial expressions would have said it all. 

• 4) The mother/daughter feud. Johnson was paid to sleep with the mother and blackmailed into sleeping with the daughter. He didn’t give a damn about both of them. For mother and daughter to actually argue over this man was great for theatrics but was innately absurd. One of these characters should have been written to be the mature person. One of them should have had the ability to see the bigger picture. Also, the unresolved mother/daughter relationship was a loose end in the story. 

• 5) The Jaycee character. Smooth operator? I think not. Mary (Oge Okoye) was Johnson’s girlfriend and while he struggled with money issues she was being pursued by the wealthy Jaycee (Charles Billion). Jaycee kicked it to Mary with a barrage of pickup lines until she made it clear that she only had eyes for Johnson. There’s a scene where Mary flattered Jaycee by saying that he could talk Queen Elizabeth into bed with him. Puhleeze. His rap was as smooth as sandpaper. Corny as all hell. 

• 6) The marriage proposal. Did Jaycee really propose to Johnson’s dying sister? C’mon. He didn’t even know her. They had only met recently, never been on a date, never kissed, barely spent two hours together and yet he wanted to marry her. Seriously? Too fantastical. Maybe he was only trying to encourage her during her illness because it was only days ago that he was professing his love for Mary. 

Other observations pertain to the no-frills hospital room that lacked necessary medical devices and the gunshot scene that had no blood. Also, the DVD states that the movie rating is PG-13. Hmm… 

Performances? Mike Ezuruonye is da bomb! His versatility as an actor is right up there with Majid’s and he did a fine job here. God bless Clarion Chukwurah. I don’t know how she says her lines without bursting out laughing. She’s pretty good at playing the sexually charged characters. As for Vidalis Ndubuisi , I think he could have been more emotional while playing a man with impotency issues and a deflated ego. 

Overall, the movie flowed well and was devoid of yawning but as noted above there were a few kinks in the story.

I must admit that I appreciate Chisom Okereke’s style of writing. It’s bold, fresh, and risqué. Prior productions such as Message to Mary and Secret Shadows were entertaining movies but the problem with “Forbidden Choice” is that it was marred with outlandish scenarios that just didn’t ring true. EJECT