A Nickson Production present, Olivia (Genevive Nnaji), Comfort (Nana Ama), Samson (Chiejina Ephraim), Okon (Ali Nuhu), Obi (Livinus Nnochiri), Bobby (Latachi Oloto, Jeoffery (Yule Edochi), David (Chidi Tchikere). Screenplay, Tchidi Chikere; Story, Genevive Nnaji; Director of Photography, Mohammed Abdullahi; Director, Tchidi Chikere. C2008
The movie Beautiful Soul is an unfinished symphony. Just when the viewer is at the peek of enjoying the flick, the movie comes to an abrupt end, it has to because, writer and producers created a character with a terminal disease, whose life was ought to be extinguished any time and abruptly.
Olivia (Genevive Nnaji), an inheritor of large fortune, hailing from a family of tragedy: her brother and sister died of sickle cell anemia and her mother lost in an accident. She’s the only survivor, but has sickle cell anemia too and would be soon be joining the family legacy. At curtain up, Olivia pays off her household attendants with six million Naira each and says goodbye to all without telling where she was heading.
Her student boyfriend, a sucker punch he is, Jeoffery (Yule Edochie) is the only one Olivia wants to share her remaining life with but knowing Olivia has such disease and could not live long, he avoids her and only comes around to pilfer her money.
David (Chidi Tchikere) rescues her off the street to the hospital and even tries to talk Jeoffery into not abandoning Olivia since she was crying for his love in return. David temporarily takes the place of Jeoffery for he’s not half the man David is. David helps raises Olivia’s state of mind and gradual happiness, even as death, the perpetual end lurks in the mind of both of them.
Olivia ends up with Comfort (Nana Ama), a single mother’s household as a nanny in charge of her little girl Barbie (Latachi Oloto), who’ll in turn help alleviate Olivia’s mental and health condition, by her incessant and frequent questioning of things and happenings around her. Olivia still suffers relapses, in her new home among the new found family of friends, and David.
Beautiful Soul is a metaphoric tale. We are introduced to Olivia with a sickle cell anemia and her condition is terminal. She gives away generously, and moves from the beautiful mansion into a hovel, and sleeps in a cot. There’s sense of her life fleeting by subtly. We sense so in the quick shots and fast scenes in the movie. Jeoffery who’s her last bastion of hope and to enjoy the balance of her short life is pilfering her money away and fleeing from her. We sense too, in the tear-jerking scene where David, in company with Olivia, lights a candle and soliloquize over it: Candle brings a beautiful glow, but it wastes in the wind, comparative to the beautiful life of Olivia wasting. He loves the glow, and buffets in it, but he can’t stop it from wasting, just the way he can’t stop the necessary progression of Olivia’s sickness.
One admiration for screenwriter Chidi Tchikeri, is that he used retraint in manipulating our emotions in this film even as he drove home our emotions far too long and far too hard. When we are introduced to Olivia, leaving her mansion, giving away her riches and going to an unstated destination, our heart goes out to her, to the point of shedding tears for the poor woman. Imagine doctors have told her she has limited days to live on earth. We all have measured days on earth but her’s has been prescribed and warranted by her medical condition.
Chidi however, introduces a comic character, Okon (Ali Nuhu), which turns out to be a very good relief, respite or solace in our grief for Olivia. We laugh a little and makes us forget the expectant death of Olivia. That ingenuity in art, especially drama mustn’t be overlooked.
I must have given this production five stars had it not been for the purple dot that follows the actors in every scene. A good movie to watch, though.