By Ali Baylay

A VENUS PRODUCTION, STARRING:Yvonne Nelson, John Dumelo, Kofi Adjorlolo, Amonebea Dodoo, Gavivina Tamaklo, Brenda Osei Bonsu; Production Manager: Loius Saah Acquahman; Story: Abdul Salam Mumuni: Screenplay: Phil Efe Bernard; Continuity: Maxwell Awuni; Editor: Dapo-Ola Daniels; DOP: Adams Umar; Associate Producer: Roger Quartey; Producer/Executive Producer: Abdul Salam Mumini; Director: Frank Raja Arasi; 144 mins. C2009.

I believe Material Girl is more like a treatise in philosophy 101, than a simple drama. The movie is replete with the word ‘moral, morality’ to a point that the drama takes a second place in the presentation. I do not think Material Girl is a movie about good versus evil as the theme suggests. It is a movie based on evil versus evil. All major characters are existentialists by creed. To vindicate this claim, Cassie in one of her tirades declares: “life doesn’t give to those who ask, it gives to those who demand”.

The story goes like this: Cassie (Yvonne Nelson) gets paid after sleeping with an older gentleman in a hotel room and runs from the scene with a briefcase she thinks is full of money, asks a lift from a car passing by and later steals the driver’s cell phone. She’s disappointed by the discovery that the briefcase holds nothing but documents. She later visits her bedridden sick mother who would not take her daughter’s ill-begotten money for her treatment.

Hon. Jayke falls in love with Cassie after finding out she rescues his wife Jessica (Amanobea Dodoo) from collapsing outside their mansion. They both enjoy their secret rendezvous. Hon. Jayke buys Cassie a house and even  helps procure a government contract for her. Meanwhile, Cassie’s mother is on her deathbed in a hospital where the doctor refuses her treatment because she does not have money. Cassie’s younger sister prostitutes herself to her uncle just so she can raise money for her mother’s medical cost, but ends up with a bounced check. She still tries to steal money and got beat up and ends up in comma in the same hospital their mother is admitted. After pulling out of the comma, she goes and kills the uncle.

On the other side of the spectrum, Cassie is having a ball, shopping and basking in the good life as the Honorable Minister asks his wife Jessica to dissolve their 29 years of marriage. He wants to marry Cassie and live happily ever after. Unfortunately, his only son, Greg, character played by up and coming Gollywood star, John Dumelo gets in town from America and Cassie dates him. Jessica, hires a private eye to investigate reason for her husband’s estrangement, while Hon. Jayke too hires a hit man to kill any one that has come between him and Cassie for her strange disappearances. With not enough time left for both parents, Jessica finds out her son and husband are having affair with the same girl-Cassie. “I brought a serpent into my home”, she laments. For Hon. Jayke, he’s now living on a borrowed times beacause the hit men hired by him are presently stabbing  his only son to death, caught in the arms of Cassie. 

The last Koffie Adjorolo’s movie I reviewed was Sleepwalker in which a woman, (Genevieve Nnaji) three times less than his age ritualistically murders him in bed,while chasing after his lost (lust?) youth. In Material Girl too,he’s in search of the same lost youth, a friend asks him why going after a younger girlfriend, he says “not doing it out of nostalgia, I’m simply making a discovery”. Here’s such a cruel discovery in the hands of his one time movie daughter in Princess Tyra. “The wishes of mortals the gods command” as she would assert in Princess Tyra. Here, Cassie carries with her the same air of insolence to the point of fooling all the people all the time to her selfish gains but only this time stopping short in the face of a morass she helps orchestrate.

By Ali Baylay

A Devine Touch film. Starring: Genevieve Nnaji, Ramsey Nuoah, Kofi Adjorlolo, Mercy Johnson, Jackie Appiah, Smith Asante. Editor: Uche Ike; Producers: Emeka Igwemba, Kinsley Okereke, Ikechukwu Onyeka; Executive Producers: Emeka Igwemba, Kinsley Okereka, Ikechukwu Onyeka;  Director: Ikechukwu Onyeka; Screenplay: Chisom Juliet Okereke. Run Time: 148mins.

Sleepwalker is a vengeance film and by Nollywood standard, this film is a class act. Too much seriousness went into making this film. It all starts with the lineup of  Nollywood heavy weights like Ramsey Nuoah, Genevieve Nnaji, Koffi Adjorlolo, and Smith Asante, and fabulous locations and wardrobe,  and interprets so on screen in a steller act that could go on to become Nollywood movie of the year.

Sleepwalker, is a movie about a girl, Francisca-later in the story, Angel (Genevieve Nnaji) whose parents are murdered in front of her at a tender age, by Chief Diminas (Kofi Adjorolo). Though Francisca’s  trauma wore off with time, but by the time she becomes an interior designer, and named Angel, and placed in a special assignment with Chief Diminas, the old anger locked in the deep recesses of her psychic, returns.

To add juice to the story’s main plot, there’s this fascinating little sub-plot in which Stone (Smith Asante), manager of interior designing company, is cajoled into making love with Angel in the name of a bribe so she can win the contract by  way of getting to the chief. Angel unremorsely falls out with her room mate (Stone’s girlfriend) over this juiceless rendezvous, and in fact  works out on her onto becoming a society woman, as she marries Chief Diminas. Here the protagonist and the antagonist are placed under one roof, same bedroom, in marrital relationship-sleeping with the enemy.

Another interesting sub-plot to this vengeance story is the shrewed ploy of  Angel to destroy the chief completely by first dating the chief’s son, drops him off like a penny with a hole in it, and along the way, fires the chief’s confidential secretary-cum girl friend, before then secretly connived with chief’s young lawyer and confidant, Justin (Ramsey Nuoah) to bring the chief down.

At about this time in a review, when much of the good has been said, it is customary to bring out the other side of the film that could stand out  as a flaw. The  unscreen presence of Mercy Johnson (Beth), for whatever reason, do not contribute to the story at all. Such parts do not meet her status as a major Nollywood player. In other words such bit parts are introductory parts for Nollywood newbies. In structure and composition for commercial films, a scene that do not forward the story is not necessary. 

Sleepwalker has great moments and I believe much could have been made of those moments, but not the same much was made of them.

The proverbial ‘caught in the act’ suggests sexual impropriety. My libido flares at the connotation of the meaning. Imagine an enraged husband bursting into a flee-infested motel room, catching his wife and his driver making out. Choosing Caught in the Act wasn’t a choice based on the star-studded line up, but rather was based solely on the title. It is a thought provoking title that anybody might snatch off a store shelf. I admit, I’m a victim!  Wow, what’s in a name?

A night club acquaintance of young Mrs. Evelyn Duke approaches her as she sits picnicking with her mother-in-law, the elder Mrs. Duke. The acquaintance knows young Mrs. Duke as Jane, a girl he met one night on the town. Then the dam breaks in this tight high society business family. Shrewd old Mrs. Duke is convinced beyond doubt her daughter-in-law leads a double life. Clarion Chukwurah got quite in form in this open-ended thriller as a snobbish, hateful and discording character. We see young Mrs. Duke (Jane) as a  prostitute for one goon on the west side of town and working for another goon on the east side as a child abductor.

Director Christopher Orzoemenn puts together a stellar cast here: Clarion Chukwurah, a veteran actress who made her screen debut on Money Power in the early 80s; Koffi Adjorlolo, a veteran Ghanian actor; Nonso Diobi, a 27 years old up-and-coming actor who made name for himself in The Richest Man; and Genevieve Nnanji, a 24 years old Lagos-Nollywood-movie phenom.

Beside its disjointed scenes and non-convincing dialogue, Caught in the Act is a sound script. The young Mrs. Duke, known alternately as Jane and Evelyn, does assume character. I guess at age 24, 50 films will definitely give one the ability to judge a good and sound script. The most intresting part of this movie is Genevieve’s ability to alternate roles. At the Duke’s, she speaks like a refined upper class, high society lady. And when she goes out on the town, a bimbo in her own right, she speaks the pidgin English with a fluency of a Nigerian street hawker. Her delivery of both is flawless. However, the movie would actually be better if we got to actually see her get caught in the act!

Ali Baylay/Publisher.