Title: MURDER AT PRIME SUITES (1-3)

Starring: Joseph Benjamin, Keira Hewatch, Chelsea Eze, Okey Uzoeshi

Synopsis: A young woman is found dead in a hotel room and it’s up to two detectives to uncover the mysterious murder.

Review:

The movie opens up to a dead woman found in a hotel room. Each person of interest that was interviewed during the investigation led to more leads in the crime. Just as the crime appeared to be solved the detectives found themselves at a dead end and had to retrace their steps in order to make an arrest. 

Let’s Talk. This is a crime drama inspired by a true story about a girl that was lured to a hotel by her facebook friends and murdered. In terms of fiction, Theodore and Hauwa (Joseph Benjamin & Keira Hewatch) were the detectives assigned to the case.

When the victim (Chelsea Eze) was introduced in the story she was already dead. This resulted in a movie where two detectives had to unravel the murder of someone the audience barely knows. There were some flashback scenes that showed the victim’s whereabouts prior to her death but the bottom line is that the audience wasn’t familiar with the victim, the subject of the movie. 

The movie does offer some insight into the lives of the detectives. Theodore experienced visitation difficulties with his ex when it came to their young daughter while Hauwa was concerned about the direction her brother’s life was taking. These scenes helped us become more familiar with the lead characters instead of just watching them do their jobs as police officers.  If the writers had shared a little more about the victim it would have created empathy and a genuine interest (instead of curiosity) in seeing the crime solved. 

It appears that the script was written as though it was an episodic crime drama where detectives are the stars of the series. There was even a television in one of the scenes that played an episode of Hollywood’s “Law & Order – SVU” in the background. 

The difference between television crime dramas and those made for the big screen is something called time. Television has an entire season to create subplots around the lead characters. Since the audience isn’t going to see Theodore and Hauwa in “next weeks episode” the writer’s job is to get all of the nuances of the story into the movie’s short timeframe. All we got in this movie was a crime investigation that didn’t create enough of an emotional connection to the characters. 

What the filmmakers needed to do was show the actual crime. Shake up the audience a little or better yet wake up the audience. In addition to intrigue, this would have provoked the unsettled feeling that boils within until the murderer was actually apprehended. 

My copy of the DVD was broken into three parts. It’s not clear why the movies are chopped up this way but the titles that convey the outcome of the characters at the end of the story were placed at the end of part two when it should have only appeared at the end of part three. This mistake revealed what was going to happen before we watched it. Sigh…

Here’s another issue. Look at the picture of the DVD above. Does it look like two people who are about to solve a crime? Or does it look like a happily married couple getting ready to go to a social event? It’s small details like this that Nollywood needs to pay attention to. The DVD cover should establish the theme of the movie. 

Performances by the lead actors sufficed, however the co-stars left a lot to be desired. It would have been great to see more of Chelsea Eze but she had a starring role with a small part. Ultimately, she’s the energy that the movie needed.  

Without shootouts, car chases, and violence, the movie comes across as a dull, dialogue driven, drama. There’s no thrill. There’s no chill. There wasn’t even any sexual chemistry between the detectives. The writer could have at least flirted with the idea of romance between the two since they worked closely together and appeared to be single. After it was all said and done, “Murder at Prime Suites” is basically all smoke and no fire. EJECT

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