Ali Baylay

The first love between  two adolescents is so powerful and pure. It’s the kind of love without reason, for they’re blind and innocent, virgin to the true intricacies of living a life. It is pure romance. The kind of love which the name of a partner, ‘Vivian’,’ Michael’, evokes magic and charm. With time, partners grow from adolescence to mature adults, and love is stricken by outside forces, then limitations and reasons set into their hearts and this time, not even the Shakespearean dictum of “Friend should bear his friend’s infirmities” holds water anymore. Sometimes.

One on One (Koni Concept/2007) fits a romance category that surpasses most productions coming from Nollywood assembly line. Writer, Chuks Obiora pours his poor heart into the story and hits the nail home in the last scene with the hitting of Vivian by a car and left to die. That’s how far love can take us to the limits of our lives.

One on One is a story of a boy chasing around a girl for his love sake, and girl plays hard to get for another love sake.  Boy is in luck with girl when he stands up to hoodlum as he tries to molest girl while girl’s  lover scampers away from scene. Boy’s face is bloodied by the hoodlum’s henchmen, but in the end wins girl’s love.   Their love quickly blooms but hampers when an uncompromising uncle decides to separate girl from boy by sending her away to a distant aunt. Girl goes into hiding but eventually caught in the company of boy. Boy is arrested, but Girl in one of her hysterical cries, threatens suicide and holds a kitchen-knife to her stomach, if her lover is not brought back to her. Boy  is left alone and love continues. That boy is Michael (Francis Duru), and the girl is Vivian(Ini Edo, 2006 nominee for Best Actress).

Michael graduates and gets hired by a bank and the bank owner’s daughter, Sylvia (Omotola Jalade Ekeinde) wants Michael. She takes Michael shopping, get him sleep over in her bed,  invites him to parties, even as Michael looks out of place in the crowd, and promises poor Michael heaven on earth. Under such materialistic spell, Michael’s heart is almost  stolen. However, when Sylvia proposes to Michael a vacation for two in the UK, Michael senses something amiss, and rebels and abruptly leaves scene and runs to his Vivian.  Sylvia, relentless, summons Vivian to her private gym and offers the poor girl a payoff for leaving Michael with her. When Vivian refuses and hurries from scene, she’s hit by a car right outside Sylvia’s house. If one had been engrossed in this movie up to this point, the soft heart will surely cry for Vivian. She endures so much pain for love’s sake.

To narrate One on One so haphazardly doesn’t reduce this story to one of the run of the mill Nollywood romantic flicks, and  will be pure tragic if  story like this gets lost in the Nollywood shuffle. This story has dept. It is a human story that centers around Michael, a young vibrant graduate, with an innocent look to his boyish demeanor, who finds himself standing at the precipice of his life. He however weathers it as his steadfast character does so in Immoral Act.

As to the characters of  his two lead women vying for his love,  screen giants in their own right,  Vivian has, “nothing to offer Michael but cry, cry, cry”, as Sylvia succintly  describes Vivian to Michael; and Vivian in a later scene retorts to Sylvia, “You’re such a big talker”. In considering the lead lady in One on One, Pretty Woman, I Will Die For You and Society Lady, she’s  a big talker alright, but also live big in real life. Remember, her wedding took place airborne aboard  DASH 7.

If  I were to write such a powerful romantic story, I would have rolled in the end credits right where Michael runs from Sylvia’s mansion and falls into the arms of  the weeping Vivian, then they stand up (personifying victory) arm in arm, and kiss an everlasting kiss.

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.

A movie shot on a budget of $15,000 or less cannot show many of the elements that it takes to make a film a commercial success. It could be graded more on essence; but filmmakers don’t usually achieve their purpose when such elements are either absent or compromised in films.

Desmond Elliot pulls a fine performance here as Eva in this cultic flick. His limping and confident smooth talking makes him all the more believable. He costars with Emeka Ike who portrays Maurice, a Saul Bellow like character of want-want-want! Not too good a performance, though.

In the film, a rich girl’s father is out to get Maurice. His mother is detained as a pawn. Thus, Maurice becomes homeless, banned by the thugs from his own home. He ends up driving a raggedy VW Beetle as a taxi only to be burnt again by the rich man’s thugs. Upon escaping from the scene, he runs into an evangelical pastor (I guess they’re everywhere in Nigeria) by the wayside, who hires Maurice to kill his bible-quoting mother because she stands between him and his desires. Maurice is initiated in the Great Ambassadors, a  satanic cult, by his best friend Eva. I guess joining the Great Ambassadors gives Maurice’s character an identity.

Storytelling, unlike fine arts, must not puzzle the viewer. Films are not poems though they may be poetic. The story must be clear even if the theme is open for interpretation. Also, inaudible and verbose dialogue irritates viewers and creates confusion. Warriors of Satan becomes maddeningly confusing from the point Maurice joins the Great Ambassadors. I keep asking myself who is the star of this film? Eva (Desmond Elliot) and Maurice (Emeka Ike) combat for the lead role. Eva has more scenes than Maurice and is the only actor we see in the last scene of Part 2. However, the cover of this dark flick proclaims: “They wanted him at all cost but the mother was the only obstacle, so the only way was to kill her. Did Maurice succeed with the cult?” I have to wonder if Maurice even deserved the top billing in the movie!

Warriors of Satan 3 may have the answer but don’t be surprised if it morphs into “THE GREAT AMBASSADORS.”

Ali Baylay, Publisher/USA