Ali Baylay
Starring: Desmond Elliot, Magid Michel, Tonto Dikeh,Uru Eke, Ejine Okoroafor; Producer: Okey Okonkwo, Director of Photography: Alex Effiong; Production Managers: Ifeanyi Udokwo, Boniface Ogbonna; Executive Producer: Okey Okonkwo; Director: Daniel Ademinokan; Story: Ral Nwankwo. 100 mins. 2009
All I Ever Wanted is a story with voice over narrative told from the point of view of Didi (Sandra Uchemba), the oldest daughter of Eddy (Desmond Elliot). She is not warming up to the girl friend and soon-to-be wife, Binye (Mercy Johnson) of her father.
Didi’s idea of a happy family is nothing more than her, her two siblings, the father and the aunt, and she considers any other person, be the girlfriend of her father, as an intruder. She is at a tangent with her sibling sister, Kachi (Chidera Anih) who cunningly put both her father and Binye together, as she wants mother figure in the household. Didi abruptly stops eating, leaving her family at the dinner-table and bursts into tears, when her father announces he’ll soon be marrying Binye.
With not much ado in this straight-jacketed story, Binye comes to the rescue of Didi, when Didi experiences her womanhood and gets really scared at the sight of blood. For the first time, Didi values the presence of another member in her father’s household and even goes on to cherish the child, a son, Binye brings into the family.
Chinelo Uzoigwe’s screenplay, except for the wonderful acting of Desmond Elliot and Mercy Johnson, has poor plot mechanics, and no tearjerking incident that makes the story stand out as memorable. In other words this story falls flat. It is the same run of the mill story: One character doesn’t like the other character for some reason, and bam, incident occurs that will unite the two. If All I Ever Wanted has had a radio or any other form of communication that will enable Eddy and Binye to get together, it would have been the classic case of the movie, Sleepless in Seattle. One thing in All I Ever Wanted that didn’t escape my notice is I can’t quite get a grasp on the scene of Eddy’s altercation with his wife in the bedroom and to the point of reference that his wife died in a plane crash. I want to believe this scene is a flashback but on the other hand, it seems in the present. You bet I wouldn’t have been confused if this scene had appeared in a prelude.
Voice over narrative “I” as intended in All I Ever Wanted, is a beautiful device that can tell story from personal point of view, but just as useful as it can be, it is sometimes mostly overused or underused as in this film.
Who is this movie critic? Your job is to rubbish the hard work of others isn’t it? how dear you say what you don’t know. many people have been saying good about this movie and i for one have watched it and think its a very good production, storyline, acting and what have you. Please if you don’t have better things to do, go produce yours and stop talking trash. I hate it when people make an effort, some other person opens his dirty mouth; this time around useless hands to write rubbish.