Title: SHACKLES

Sequel: END OF SHACKLES

AKA: MY LOVER MY WIFE (1 & 2)

Starring: Jackie Appiah, John Dumelo, Roselyn Ngissah, James Gardiner

Synopsis: 

Egos and insecurities rise to the surface when a married man resents his wife for being better educated than he is.  

Review:

This movie starts out with an interesting topic that deals with competition in the work place and also it explores how men deal with successful women.

Apparently, Kwame’s (John Dumelo) ego was too big to deal with being subordinate to his wife because he was “the man of the house.” When he discovered that she was going for her masters degree he feared that she had plans to take over his role as man of the house.

Kwame then had an affair with Joyce, his secretary, and she secretly licked his wounds but little did he know she, like his wife, had high aspirations also – she wanted to be promoted from the role of mistress to wife. 

The story shifted to Mansah, played by Roselyn Ngissah, who was an uneducated woman from the village. She came to work for Kwame and his wife and her backstory was that she had an out of wedlock pregnancy.

By the end of the movie we were dealing with Joyce’s (Jackie Appiah) possession of Kwame and her desire to kill his wife so that he would be hers officially.  

Let’s Talk. “Shackles” starts off fine and then devolves into chaos. In addition to insecurity issues, the story has a break out of jail scene which wasn’t believable, a toxic waste issue, Mansah’s love life drama, Kwame’s failing marriage, and Joyce’s obsession with Kwame. With all that, this movie actually had moments of straight up boredom.

This is the kind of movie that leaves you on the fence because there’s good acting here, in particular from Roselyn Ngissah, but unfortunately, it’s in the wrong movie. The movie came off as slow, bland, and uninteresting. 

One point worth mentioning is when Kwame had to explain to his wife how he became involved with his side chick, Joyce. The scenes of how he ran into her at a venue were played all over again.

Directors have got to know that movies are for the audience. The audience already knew how they became involved so there was no need to repeat the scenes in their entirety. A quick flashback here and there would have sufficed but it was up to the Director to find creative a way to convey Kwame’s explanation without making the audience sit through scenes again – especially dull scenes.

The DVD cover states that the title is “Shakles” but when the movie is played, the title is listed as “ShaCkles.” Sigh….  For more on problems with spelling in African movies, see Nolly-Ghally page. 

This movie was repackaged and is also known as “My Lover, My Wife.” At the end of the day it’s not a movie that people will be talking about at the office water cooler. EJECT