By Ali Baylay
The last time I was ridiculed, confused, and puzzled by a literary genre was when I read Wole Soyinka’s Interpreters. I read it twice with no success at understanding the novel, until an O’level class friend of mine recommended Fourah Bay College Edred Jones’ treatise, Interpreters Interpreted. Even at that, I can’t hardly have intelligent discourse on the Interpreters. In all my movie reviewing experience, Wicked Intentions baffles me the same way Interpreters does, though in the case of Wicked Intentions, the problem doesn’t come from literary ingenuity as with Soyinke’s Interpreters, a sage from the class of the likes of James Joyce, than from pure editorial oversight. Wicked Intentions is narrated mostly in flashback mode. I guess.
The movie starts with a playerlike character, Jim (Desmond Elliot), who brings girls after girls to his shag (breakheart mansion), his palour, the likes of a nouveau-riche, and creates steaming love scenes with them. He makes them believe he’s all they dream about in relationship, only to discard them the next day like a penny with a hole in it. Jim’s quest is to win over a love partner with just enough money and beauty as not to intimidate him. He runs into Charlene (Stephanie Okereke). She kisses men and leave them crying. Charlene has similar characteristics to that of Jim. Like two liars, their relationship thrives on deceptions, false promises, and hopes. I guess.
On the other hand, Charlene’s bed-ridden dad fakes heart attacks to snare her into marrying a Chubby fellow of her distaste. The chubby fellow tries couple of attempts to win over this miss-hard-to-get, but instead gets splashed in his face with a bucket full of water. Relentless though, he hired two guys who kill Jim on their wedding day even as Charlene escapes town before she says, “I do”. I guess.
Charlene explains the entire story to Kamsi (Nadia Buari) from her POV, by way of giving her reason why she Charlene couldn’t accept Chris (Smith Asante) in marriage even as he placards banner of love on the wall for her. A writer once said, “Stephanie has an infecteous smile, and get to talk to her, she’ll treat you like an old acquaintance”. Since her Nollywood debute in Compromise 2 in 1997, Stephanie has always brightened Nollywood screen in most of her movies. Wicked Intentions is one of those movies she performs her flawless acts. With no sweat, Steph could easily be a Hollywood material.