Annex Merchandise Inc. presents Ramsey Noah (Cyprian Idriss/Cross), Genevive Nnaji (Hellen), Nnamdi Eze (Henry) Andy Chukwu (Stephen). Screenplay, Chucks Obiorah; DOP, JonathanGbemuotor; Exe. Producer, Nwafor Anafor; Producer, Nwafor Anayo; Story, Nwafor Anayo; Editor, Andy Chukwu.
“A man with a ring on his pinky finger is intelligent, witty and crooked.” My grandfather used to tell me just as he dismissed people with goggles as marijuana smokers, so was his disdain and disapproval for anyone who used a ring on his pinky finger, as a crook and one to revere. “They always outrun you in any business deals. They think twice ahead of you,” he used to say. Grown up and in my world, with my own very eyes and experiences, I stand to vindicate my old man.
To wit:
“I’m Cross (Ramsey Noah), people call me Cross, because, in my line of business, no one crosses me. Whoever does so will end up dead.” That’s how Cross (diamond-studded gold ring on his pinky finger), the mafia boss introduces himself to us. He’s a corporate thief. Oh, excuse me, he’s a corporate mafia-type: “I have nine offshore accounts with not less than two million dollars in each of them,” he brags. He doesn’t make his money by offloading a yachtful of cocaine in the middle of the night at Lagos wharf or tends to a printing press in his basement with a roomful of counterfeit Nairas.
He blackmails senators, bankers, corporate heads, ministers, sometimes brutal, sometimes with a few threats, like the exposure of their shady deals in the newspapers across the country. He hires underpaid office workers at banks, ministries, and institutions that deal with lots of money and transactions. His underbosses, the Capos, bring him pieces of information and uses it to pilfer millions of dollars from the victims. One thing he lacks and is hungry for, is an ideal lifetime partner, with a gut like his. A wife.
He has a Capon, named Henry (Nnamdi Eze). Henry and the band of goons run the gang. Henry is the next in arm to protect Cross, and Cross consults with him on many business issues, but he doesn’t thoroughly approve of the way Cross is treating him lately. However, because of the long relationship with Cross (twenty years), and the money is good too, he believes he and Cross are family, until…
Hellen (Genevive Nnaji) is a woman who walks the street as a whore and makes lots of money off the Alhajis, and brings the money home to her younger boyfriend, Steve (Andy Chukwu) she hopes will marry her one day. She is beautiful and desired by every man; only people with lots of money, though.
Money, lots lots of money; greed; then throw in a beautiful broad, don’t bother how fat she is. Nollywood doesn’t give a dime about weight. After all, a broad is broad is a broad. Those three are the essentials for the plot formula of Cornered. The beautiful and peaceful world of Henry and his crime boss Cross enters a crisis stage. It’s on the night they have a party at a nightclub to celebrate their success of hurling in millions of dollars.There is Hellen raging and roaring and throwing a drink at the Alhaji she’s in the club with, and leaves. A lady in a film I saw once said she’s turned on by men with guns. Cross’ admiration for Hellen and his last falling in love with her is that she can stand to a man. He’s turned on by Hellen demonstrating her sense of rage and no-bull attitude from a man. Cross likes them feisty ones.
Henry becomes jealous and fears that Hellen will come between him and Cross, or, she’ll take Cross’ attention from the business and therefore hamper their good life. Cross can’t see passed Hellen for no other girl in the world and must marry her at any rate or cost. He gets what he wants; Hellen gets what she wants by marrying Cross and becoming a signatory to Cross’ fortune. Henry sees himself losing grip on things in the organization. He begins to distance himself from the Boss, and he’s not around when there’s an attempt on the Boss for which he blames him.
By a twist of fate, Cross appoints Henry as a bodyguard to Hellen because he believes Hellen hasn’t turned her attention away from her young and poor boyfriend she hopes one day will marry her, hence her frequent disappearances from the mansion. The story enters another level of development. I watched Bodyguard (1991) when Whitney Houston falls in love with her bodyguard, Kevin Costner, and I believe the scenario in that movie will repeat here. Hellen lures Henry to bed, and they spent a good night together. Henry jumps Cross’ ship and volunteers to kill him for, seven million dollars which Hellen promises him upon the execution of the deal. Oh, Nollywood, and their love of money! Aren’t we opening the gate of Troy to the enemy because of Hellen?
All along, and with great dexterity, and shrewdness, Cross knows Hellen doesn’t love him but observes her secret rendezvous with the nimbleness of a cat. The one thing with older men with lots of money is that they fall in love with women twice less their ages. You bet, “to discover their lost youth,” if I can steal one Ghallywood actor’s movie dialogue line.
The Story almost bogged down to a stop until writer introduces Hellen, and the story wheel starts spinning three-hundred-sixty degrees. At a pace, not Henry, nor Cross could get hold on. Overnight, Henry turns into the different animal who can kill his boss at the mere mention of eight million, and like Macbeth, he loses sleep over that. He becomes haggard and distant. Hellen knows her time in the household of Cross is about to end and she wants to collect all the loot she could from this brief marriage.
“I want out of this marriage, Cross. This whole marriage thing is not my style.” That’s the last sensible statement Hellen says before finally leaving. Hellen walks away from Cross’ Xanadu, leaving him heartbroken but like he too says, “I’m not the type to walk away from battles.” Cross gathers himself and fights a calculated fight. Hellen and Henry are in shock and cornered in the foyer of Cross’ Xanadu, getting away with documents. Henry is taken away and killed. Cross lets Hellen go. Hellen goes to Steve but Steve poisons her drink, and she died on the spot (poetic justice). Steve gets out of the motel gate only to be murdered by Cross’ henchmen. Sitting alone in his living room, Cross soliloquize: “There’ll be no sunshine if it wasn’t for rain, and there’ll be no joy if it wasn’t for pain.” In the end, the cooky crumbles. Cross spent fifteen years in the slammer.
I enjoyed reviewing this movie a lot. A good story must have a unified plot, where you can sense a subliminal, logical cause and effect, and it happens here to the letter. Helen raises the stake in the story by her presence, and by her intent to rip money from Cross, but Cross, being Cross, and intelligent like a cat, raises the bar some more by letting Hellen gets what she wants only to get poisoned by the guy she caused all the trouble. Henry, of course, turns out to be an easy kill in the story.
Anybody who has read the Greek mythology must guess what the name of Hellen being the central character in this flick denote, only that Helen of Troy spelling is with one ‘L’ instead of Nollywood Hellen. Her presence tells us as invincible as Cross could be, it is only she who could bring down that formidable tower, by opening the gate to the enemies of Troy. Good flick.
May Mnamdi Eze’s soul RIP.