Title: POOL PARTY  (1 & 2)

Starring: Majid Michel, Yvonne Nelson, Yvonne Okoro, Ekow Blankson

Synopsis:  

A pool party serves up murder and betrayal when a man learns that his brother has become his wife’s lover. 

Review:

Audrey (Yvonne Nelson) believed her husband was paralyzed. He was actually just depressed because he found out she was cheating on him. He asked her to end his life and in return she would inherit a huge insurance payout he had arranged for her. This was good news for Audrey and she pretended to be reluctant at first but eventually gave in to her husband’s request.

Meanwhile, in another storyline, Scott (Majid Michel) and his crew were out for blood. A doctor was held captive and his little daughter was abducted. Conflict set in when the little girl had an asthma attack and the kidnapper was clueless about what to do. 

Let’s Talk. The pool party served as the place where plans were executed. Audrey’s intention (Yvonne Nelson) was to use the party as her alibi as she set out to kill her husband as per his request. Tiffany (Uche Joan Iwuanyawu) used the party to lure Dr. Donald (Ekow Blankson) to her hotel room while his daughter was being kidnapped.

As the drama unfolded the murder of Audrey’s husband didn’t go as planned and he had a surprise waiting for her. As for the kidnapping of Dr. Donald’s daughter, we learned that it was about revenge, not money. 

In terms of story, it was confusing at first. We saw Majid Michel in a hospital bed paralyzed from the waist down and then the movie cut to a scene where he was seen running down a street. It wasn’t clear whether the scene was a flashback or his possible future. It turned out that Majid was playing two completely different characters! This became evident at the end of part one when I noticed that he was credited for playing two roles, George and Scott.

When Majid was seen with dreads that’s when he was playing Scott. Upon this clarification I felt the need to watch part one all over again. When a movie causes me to rewind, it’s no longer entertaining me, it’s wasting my time. I’m sure there wasn’t a shortage of actors in Ghana and there would have been less confusion had another actor played Scott instead of Majid.  

Also, there were many instances where the story didn’t make sense. At the pool party Tiffany shamelessly flirted with Donald. How come he didn’t recognize her as the mother of the child that he refused to operate on? Her hair may have been different but her face remained the same. You can’t forget a cute face like Uche Joan’s.

Also, upon Vivian’s first encounter with Scott I think the first words out of her mouth should have pertained to his striking resemblance to George. Sigh…

What this movie had going for it is Yvonne Okoro. She nailed it as a mother in anguish. She was desperate, worried, and fearful yet she still managed to think quickly during her turmoil.

Ekow Blankson was also fantastic and Majid was pretty good at playing both roles although as mentioned before, he should played only one.

“Pool Party” succeeded at keeping an audience on it’s feet not because of it’s story but because too much of an effort was spent on trying to follow it. A director and writer’s job is to present a clear and concise story and this is where they failed. EJECT

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