Title: MY DYING DAY (1 – 4) 

AKA: 3SOME 

Starring: Tonto Dikeh, Frank Artus, Onyinye Alex 

Synopsis:
Maureen, a young woman that suffered a hard life, made the mistake of becoming involved in a simultaneous love affairs that ultimately led to the destruction of her life. 

Review:
Maureen (Onyinye Alex) was in the wrong place at the wrong tine. She attended a party and a drug was slipped into her drink that made her vulnerable. Two guys noticed her incoherent behavior and led her to a place where they attempted to rape her. Mario (Frank Artus) came to her rescue.

Mario didn’t know Maureen yet he took her home with him and the next morning she woke up in his bed. This is when she met Mario’s sister for the first time and a good first impression went by the wayside. She assumed Maureen was a cheap hook-up, clearly unaware of the circumstances.

Mario and Maureen became a couple and soon after, the attempted rapists sought revenge against Mario and attacked him. He spent time in the hospital and while he was away, Maureen finally bonded with his sister and they became close…very close.

When Mario was released from the hospital he resumed his relationship with Maureen but he sensed something wasn’t quite right. It was only a matter of time before he discovered that he was sharing his girlfriend with his sister, who had fallen madly in love with her. A battle ensued, both emotionally and physically, and someone paid with their life.

Let’s Talk. This is a story about a love triangle but there was also a subplot about Maureen’s life of hardship. To get straight to the point, this wasn’t an impressive story.

First of all, if the writer wanted to use a ‘damsel in distress’ scenario to get Mario to meet Maureen then he should have had Mario fight off the attackers like a real hero. It was too convenient that the rapists disappeared for a few minutes, establishing the opportunity for Michael to neatly save Maureen. Puhleeze.

The dress. Mario loaned Maureen one of his sister’s dresses and when his sister realized the dress was missing she made a big stink about it. Come on! There was nothing special about the dress. This scene was overdramatic.

The love story. The relationship between Mario and Maureen was too fast and underdeveloped. His mad love for her just didn’t translate.

The lesbian relationship. Tsk, tsk. What circumstances were put forth that made Maureen and April (Tonto Dikeh) share a bed in the first place? First of all, they didn’t even get along at first, and secondly, Mario was hospitalized which made his bedroom available so why didn’t Maureen just sleep there?

It wasn’t disclosed how Maureen wormed her way into April’s bed but clearly the writer wanted a lesbian affair and went for it.

The jail time. Mario got out of jail in record time for someone convicted of manslaughter. Again, just too many conveniences.

The bright side? There weren’t too many. A story where brother and sister share the same woman isn’t a popular storyline and that scored a few points but when the writer threw in the overused theme where Maureen later got involved with Mario’s best friend, that negated any chance of having a distinct edge. There are too many movies where characters secretly sleep with their best friend’s lover. 

There were some nice, playful moments with the characters, especially those between Mario and his sister…well, maybe a bit too many of them. I wondered if they were about to have an affair. Seriously!

The filmmakers were smart enough to cast Tonto Dikeh and Frank Artus. Frank interpreted his role fairly well and Tonto Dikeh is one gutsy actress. I’m not familiar with Onyinye Alex’s work. Her performance here was so-so.

Technical issues? Sound, sound, sound. Clearly, the filmmakers thought it was more important for us to hear the music instead of the dialogue.

I have a feeling that what I watched here was an edited version of the original film. The bottom line is that this is a love triangle with lesbianism thrown in to camouflage a substandard story. In addition, we were stuck with a lead character that continued to make bad choices and by the story’s end, she never evolved. EJECT