By Ali Baylay

Starring: Ramsey Nouah, Magid Michel, Nse Ikpe-Etim, Mercy Johnson, Desmond Elliot,Omoni Oboli; Screenplay: Uyai Ikpe-Etim/Bula Aduwo; DOP: Austine Nwaolie/Issac Martins; Executive Producers: Emem Isong, Desmond Elliot; Editor: Uche-Alex Moore; Producers: Emem Isong, Desmond Elliot; Director: Daniel Ademinokan; Assistant Director: Desmond Elliot. c.2009

Guilty Pleasures is one of the few Nollywood productions that’ll surely go into cinematic history as a classic. To a large extent it has the makeup and flare of Citizen Kane. Terso in Guilty Pleasures shares the insolence and self righteousness of Orson Welles in Citizen Kane in his Zanadu mansion.  Just the way Welles idolizes Susan Alexander, so Terso idolizes Liz in Guilty Pleasure and they do so to a fault that cause their happiness to go asunder.

Guilty Pleasures is a narrative of two divorced wives telling how they were each robbed out of their marriages. Each story has a semblance of classic Hollywood: Citizen Kane on one hand and Fatal Attraction on the other. The stories are told interchangeably by the two and the screenwriters Uyai Ikpe-Etim and Bula Aduwo do so cleverly without confusing viewers. In one account the wife throws the husband out, and in the other, the rich husband cannot help but throw the pig back into the sty.

Kinetchi (Rob Loner) is a photographer who on a gig, runs into Boma (Mercy Johnson) and have a one night stand with her and vanishes out of his life at least, for a moment. Later, their path crosses and it is portraits after portrait at the beach and a night at her pad. When Kinetchi too vanishes obviously on a honeymoon with a newly wed, Boma is stressed out and goes into a massage parlor. While there, the newly wed wife Nse (Omoni Oboli) visits and she’s introduced to Boma and found out that Boma is an interior decorator.  She invites Boma to their house for a dinner and sleepover. Boma,  having come to know this lady stole her heart jumps on the invitation. While Kinetchi’s wife sleeps, he tiptoes into Boma’s room more to satisfy an insatiable desire for her than for her to get out of his life. They’re caught having it out in the living room and he lost the marriage.

The other guilty pleasures take place in the household of Terso. He is a wealthy man of good taste who showers his wife with anything beautiful, but his attention. Terso’s attention could not be dissuaded from his business meetings and trips in exchange for the attention to his wife, so when Terso’s wife takes his photographer younger brother Bobby (Magid Michel) from the airport, at first there’s love-hate introductory relationship between them.  Bobby is young and hot, and every young girl’s dream, especially any girl posing for his camera will fall under his spell and warmth, as did his brother’s wife Liz, an old model. She in turn has been missing the glare and glamour of showbiz coupled with Bobby’s presence in the house, fills the vacuum created by Terso’s absence from her bedroom. She falls prey to Bobby’s almost psychotic gesture towards her, and allows him to deflower the long buried flame of desire in her. That is how Eve (Liz) left Eden.

One cannot review this movie without looking at the line up of the cast. No one other than Ramsey Nuoah would have played the character of Terso more exactly than himself. He has the persona and the perfect grit  for the role. Ramsey has played mostly affluent Nollywood roles to the point that he can be typecast. Most of all, forget the skin tone, the camera loves him. He doesn’t pose he acts and he delivers in Guilty pleasures. Other surprising acts that capture ones attention are those of Magid Michel and Mercy Johnson. Both roles are either psychotic or bordering on  neurotic. You can hear it in their deliveries, in their actions, their laughters and in their behaviors. I think the authors of this remarkable work are portraying artists as loonies.

If there’s a focal attention in Guilty Pleasures, that attention belongs to Ramsey Nouah. Like I said earlier, his acting in this flick is a carbon copy of Orson Welles at both the height of his glory and his downfall-losing his wife. And he acts with such integrity and persona that George Clooney would envy. In the whole movie he’s neither too aloof in the beginning nor softhearted in the end.

I can bet my bottom dollar on Guilty Pleasures to make your evening grande. The energy that went on to produce this movie is visible on the screen. Thanks to Desmond Elliot and partner for having such a sumptious production. An engrossing story! Guilty Pleasures is a romantic, nostalgic, and a sentimental presentation, period. 

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.

• By Ali Baylay

Strength of Faith: Producer: Sunshine Movies Limited, Director: Ikechukwa Onyeka. Cast: Van Vicker, Uche Jombo, Tonto Dikeh.

Strength to Strength: Producer: Solomon Apete, Director: Ugezu J. Ugezu, Prod. Mgm: Ifeanyi Udoku, Exec. Prod: Ezenwa Collins Chinedu. Cast: Patience Ozorkwo, Mike Ezuruonye, Mercy Johnson, Tonto Dike.

I do not know how these two identical title of movies ended up on my desk but for some reason they were there, and I kept looking away because the titles in themselves are not eye catching or meaningful. However, I got curious at one point, and my critical mind forced me to watch them, simultaneously.

One thing about Strength of Faith and Strength to Strength production processes don’t sit well with me. I don’t know about you, but for me  the titles are too close for comfort. I can’t imagine two seperate productions would have so close a title and so close a theme. It seems Nollywood is running short of story ideas and titles.

If I could work up some similarity traits between the two movies, both are produced in 2008 and marketed in America. Strength of Faith, by Black Star Entertainment , 3832 White Plains Road, Bronx, New York 10467; Strength to Strength, by Executive Image African Movies, 2811 White Plains Road, Bronx, New York 10467. Both these companies live next door to each other.

The casts are either compromised or borrowed from one set to another. The notorious mother-in-law of Nick ( Mike Ezuruonye) in Strength to Strength, commonly known in the film as Nick’s mom (Camilla Mgbrekpe), is also Mama(Camela Mberekpe)  who plays the evil mother of Van Vicker in Strength of Faith. Then enters Tonto Dike, (Chekwube) in Strength of Faith, and (Angela) in Strength to Strength, and in both films she plays the tragic character who ends dead before the end credits roll. Oh, one more thing about these two flicks that stand out as similar is, they both explore marriage themes in reference to in-laws: The aggrandizing mother (Patience Ozokwor) of Jane (Mercy Johnson) in (Strength to Strength) who would like to sell Jane to the highest bidder, versus Nick’s Mom (Camilla Mgbereka) who could stop at nothing but to get her son a woman who would give her a grandchild. In Stregth of Faith, the mother-in-law bewitches Chekwube for the mere heck of the fact that she hates her.

The only difference found between the two movies is that while one explores (Strength to Strength), the biblical plot of Jacob marrying Rachel and her sister Leah, but deviates and takes on a plot curve from there, ending the story with the death of the younger sister, Angela (Tonto Dike) in labor; In  the use of  of in the title of Strength of Faith, I find a difference, and poetic justice in the story: Devil worshipping works, as equally as belief in the holy ghost’s fire depending on the strength of faith like we find in both factions responsible for the death of Chekwube (Tonto Dike) and Mama (Camela Mberekpe), respectively.

The reason why Hollywood uses working titles during production of a movie is, by the time of premier their movie must have been christened a title unique to it and to it alone. In today’s age of  google keywording, your movie with a similar title to the production next door,  in the same market, can easily get lost in the laybrinth. Are we getting short of titles in Nollywood?