Washington DC and Sons Films, in association with John Ezedonmi Films Presents, Martha Ankomah (Nina), Prince David Osei (Frank), Roselyn Ngissah (Efua), Scot Roberts (Steven), Khareema Aguuir (Cynthia), Gifty Temeng (Agartha). Story/Screenplay, Bob Emmanuel Ansoike; Director of Photography, Fred Ofusu; Editor, Basil Akugre; Producer, Christopher Nwachukwu; Director, John Ezidonmi. (C2011)
Honestly, the bedmate here, whose name is Steven (Robert Scot), is a vicious shady entrepreneur, whose line of business didn’t make exposition in this film, but unfortunately, he steals money from a prosperous inheritor, Efua (Roselyn Ngissah) in return for fake love. The other male lead used to be an armed robber in his youth but now a born-again Christian and an honest businessman, his name is Frank (Prince David Osei). Efua is a wealthy inheritor businesswoman whose excessive body weight steals her self-confidence and therefore throws herself on Steven. Her best friend is Nina (Martha Ankoma). She claims to be too smart but feisty for any man to come close to her. But when she gets into a barroom brawl with Frank who gave her a jaw-breaking slap, which ends her in a hospital, she later ends in his loving arms-Taming of the shrewd.
Having experienced lots of headaches and heartaches from men, all her faults, and given up on them, Nina turns out to be an adviser and confidence booster for Efua on the line of relationships with men. She warns her to be especially cautious in her relationship with Steven. Nina comes to loathe men after seeing her mother wasting away at home in frustration when her father left her mother for a younger woman. And then too, one night on the town, she sees Steven in the arms of another girl coming from a bar.
Efua plays along the sugar-coated love lines Steven throws at her until she catches him in bed with another girl and she calls the relationship off. Not for Steven though. He had decked too much of his financial cards on Efua’s link and he’s not in the position to lose it now especially when his very life is threatened by a particular business partner, demanding him come up with a certain amount of money in a given time. Efua vindicates Nina for the unexplained hatred she has had for Stevens.
The greatest of Nina’s resolve to hate men come to a test in a bar brawl with Frank (Prince David Osei). Frank catches his fiance in bed with another man and concludes that all women, need to be locked up. Or maybe, he’ll go after the ugly ones. Who, Nina? She is pretty but feisty, and also hates men, as well as Frank, hates women. Putting Nina and Frank in a bar, when he had gotten too many shots of liquor in his system, and his depressed mind about women could be flammable. With one or two exchanges, Nina receives a slap in her jaw that sends her to the hospital. Frank is bailed out of remand but charged with the hospital bills until Nina is well and right from the hospital when both shall report back to the police for their final decision on the case.
Love comes in many colors as they say. Nina and Frank though act as cat and dog to each other whenever they met, are secretly in love. Nina shrewdly lengthens her stay at the hospital as an excuse for her to see Frank. Frank, on the other hand, is always radiant on his way to the hospital to see Nina. Not long, however, both come out of the closet and kiss, and sleep together, and conceive a child, and a wedding plan with Nina’s mother’s blessings.
Meanwhile, Steven is severely strapped for cash and wants to get back with Efua so he can get financial help. Efua threatens him with police if he does not leave her house. He does so but not for long. Steven comes back and kidnaps Efua and threatens to kill her if she insists on turning him out. But with the help of Frank and Nina, Efua is rescued. Steven gets killed in a shootout with the police.
At one point in my viewing of this movie I thought it would become an episode and go on until the end of time. Another plot lines still hang in the air by the end credit crawl. The character of Frank as an ex-armed robber turned honest businessman (what business?) interests me in advancing the story. The arrest of Nina’s father for the murder of Frank would have caused a twist in the story, but if it did not. Then we ask ourselves, why the exposition of the arrest? Is this a phantasma of a dream sequence of Nina? I remember Nina’s father in bed, by the side of his young wife, vowing over his dead body for Frank to marry his daughter after killing his younger brother.
The rhetorical aspect of this film is not too impressive. I played back most scenes with my eyes closed, listening to Steven deliver his lines, and he instead seems like reading or speaking a memorized Shakespearean lines. Then I hear with my eyes closed to Nina’s deliveries, and she looks natural with a nice rhetorical persuasiveness. She speaks with emotion, to make us believe she’s talking from her guts. Like Aristotle says: the actor must adopt a style, manner and a voice most pleasing to the audience. She’s natural.
What is not natural about her partner Efua in playing a role in this film and what I find a little troubling, is her playing the lead role in the cast. Her presence steals away the visual beauty of the film. In most scenes, Efua’s wardrobe, lighting, and camera angles could only throw the set off. In certain scenes, she has the look of the 1889 Aunt Jemima, pancake advertisement. And in other scenes with no depth, she’ll look like a full blown balloon pasted on cardboard.
The reason Hollywood uses one hundred and ten pounds girls as their leads in films is the aesthetic value of the picture on the screen. Sitting through two hours of this movie and seeing Efua carrying her bulk around the frame chokes me a little. I heaved a sigh for her when the film was over. Finally, she can go home, kick those high-heeled shoes off, spread eagle on her bed, take some of the two-hundred-fifty-pound weight off her feet.
One thing I can’t get out of my stubborn head is why this film’s title is Bed Mate. The two-word phrase doesn’t connote romance. If it doesn’t, then, the film is written more for Steven and Efua relationship alone. ‘Bedmate,’ as I grew up to understand during my secondary school days, was more or less constant sexual escapade one could have with a girl in the neighborhood who usually drops in from time to time for a quickie. Nothing serious and romantic. Even as Efua takes Steven’s love seriously, and to the point of marriage, Steven had no such feelings towards her. Instead, he uses her as a bedmate (sex) and a financier to support his shady business. Good evening thriller this movie is but watch on weekends so you won’t be late for work the next working day. Too long.