Title: ROUGH DIAMOND (1 & 2)

Sequel: BROKEN DIAMOND (1 & 2)

Starring: Monalisa Chinda, Frank Artus, Yvonne Nelson

Synopsis:  A well-to-do woman goes through drastic measures for a baby after years of infertility. 

Review:

Tenena (Monalisa Chinda) lived a good life as a single woman. She had a promising career, her own home, a car, and no children. After enormous pressure from her mother to marry, she accepted a proposal from Pedro (Frank Artus). Pedro was young and unemployed but Tenena used her connections to get him a job.

A few years into the marriage, Tenena had not conceived. It bothered her tremendously and verbal jabs from Pedro’s mother didn’t help. At first Pedro stuck by her but eventually lost patience. Just when he was about to kick her to the curb she announced that she was pregnant. A big,fat, lie. 

Margaret (Yvonne Nelson), Tenena’s friend, was pregnant and wanted to abort the pregnancy. Tenena convinced her to give birth and hand the baby over to her. Tenena’s husband was unaware of the scheme and believed his wife was finally pregnant. Conflict set in when Margaret unexpectedly bonded with the baby and the baby’s father suddenly resurfaced.

Let’s Talk. This is an unlikely story about a woman desperate for a child. Let’s start at the top of this movie where Tenena’s mother pressured her to get married. Her mother basically encouraged her to lower her standards in order to find a husband.

Tenena actually downplayed her success when she met Pedro just so he wouldn’t be intimidated. Should a woman educate herself, climb the corporate ladder, and then pretend none of it happened so a man won’t feel inferior? While men play themselves up to impress a woman, a woman must deny her success to impress a man? Is this what the dating world has come to? Cmon. Tsk, tsk.

Tenena married a broke man and used her connections to get him a job. He became a success because of her. Take note that she didn’t discard him because he was unemployed; she helped him. For this very man to want to reject her after years of marriage because she was barren reveals a lot about his character.

As for the pregnancy scheme, Tenena planned to disappear for the remaining six months of her “pregnancy.” She informed Pedro that she had to go to London for a three-month, work related, course. She had sporadic contact with him during that time although she never really left town.

At the end of the three months Tenena announced that she had to stay for an additional three months. Pedro was disappointed but accepted it. My number one question is what kind of fool is Pedro? It wasn’t mentioned in the story that he was retarded so how could he possibly believe a woman that couldn’t conceive for years, disappeared for her entire “pregnancy” and then returned with a baby? Didn’t he think it was strange that he missed out on his wife’s entire pregnancy?

When Tenena phoned Pedro to say she gave birth he told her to come home. Huh? Shouldn’t he have been on the first flight out to be by her side? Only when his friend mentioned that he should go see his wife that it dawned on him that he should be with her. Of course, Tenena wasn’t really away and she pulled some tricks to make sure Pedro stayed put.

About ten years later, Tenena and Pedro raised the boy as their own and Pedro remained the clueless man that he always was. Suddenly the boy’s biological father reappeared from the states and was suddenly looking for Margaret and his child. Sigh… It’s through some digging that the truth about the boy and other matters came to light.

Needless to say, “Rough Diamond/Broken Diamond” is not an impressive story. It’s a dialogue driven script and the problem with these types of screenplays is that they can easily become boring if the dialogue isn’t fresh, witty, and fast paced. Here, the story was pretty slow and bland. There was very little intrigue and any interest that the movie generated didn’t occur until part four. By then it was too late.

Performances were actually pretty decent. Monalisa Chinda and Frank Artus played the main characters and love interests. The two of them as a couple? Hmm, I’m not so sure they conjured up enough spark but they weren’t repulsive. The acting wasn’t the problem though; the story was. There were too many things that didn’t ring true such as the baby drama, the murder in the story, and Kelvin’s sudden concern for Margaret after a ten-year absence.

Technical issues? The sound in the movie was horrible. There were scenes where the dialogue was completely inaudible. In fairness to the audience, those scenes should have been re-shot. They were completely unacceptable.

So “Rough Diamond” was indeed rough. It had quite a few issues that needed to be ironed out in terms of the story as well as technical issues. Although it did raise valid questions, it was soap opera like and for the most part, uninteresting. EJECT

Follow @TalkAfrMovies