Title: MR. & MRS. (1 & 2)

Starring:  Nse Ikpe Etim, Benjamin Joseph, Barbara Soky, Paul Sambo

Synopsis: 

A housewife is emotionally abused by her wealthy husband and later divorces him only to covertly manipulate him into wanting her back. 

Review:

Susan (Nse Ikpe Etim) lost her sense of self in her marriage to Ken (Benjamin Joseph). Over the past ten years he verbally abused her and treated her like a slave. When it came time to sign the divorce papers Ken didn’t think she would sign them but she did.

In order to avoid a scandal while Ken’s father ran for governor, Ken and Susan agreed to live together as though married until the election was over. During this time both Ken and Susan dated other people and Ken’s girlfriend gradually revealed how inferior she was to Susan.

As for Susan, she enjoyed her newfound freedom, got her hair done, and wore sexy dresses. Ken not only became jealous of her new life, he found himself attracted to her again. Actually, Susan knew she had the stage and “worked it” to get her husband back.

The backdrop of the story was about the seemingly perfect marriage between Charles and Linda (Paul Apel and Thelma Okudua). Linda was a busy career woman and thought she had the perfect husband until the story revealed otherwise.

Let’s Talk. “Mr. & Mrs.” is an excellent piece of writing especially because it shows transition. We saw the stages Ken went through; from being an arrogant a**hole, to dating someone else, to discovering the new woman wasn’t exactly better, and then taking a second look at the wife he gave up. So many movies just jump to the next stage of the story so it was a pleasure to share in the stages that the character experienced.

The audience traveled a road of many emotions from pain, sorrow, joy, laughter and relief and this is what makes great drama. There are no holes in the story and when it ended there wasn’t a bunch of unanswered questions.  The music was also a perfect addition and set the mood of each scene appropriately.

As far as acting, the performances here were pretty good. It was interesting to watch Joseph Benjamin be so cold and callous toward his wife but we also got to see his vulnerability – nice range.

Nse Ikpe-Etim was certainly the standout performance, hands down. She has the talent of making an audience feel whatever it is that she is feeling and she embodied the character effortlessly, as always. Highly RECOMMEND

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