Blu Star Entertainment Production presents Damilola Adegbite (Kami Williams), Chris Attor (Umar Abubakar), Chuk Chukwujekwu (Tunde Kulani), Eku Edewor (Sapphire), Patrick Doyle (Mr. Williams), Tosan Edremoda Ugbeye (Mrs. Williams), Bikiya Graham Douglas (Stella) Producer/Director, Michelle Bello; Screenplay, Jigi Bello; Co-Producer, Michelle Bello; Executive Producer, Sylviane Bello; Cinematography, James Costello. © 2013
I love flowers. This year, 2021, I spent over ninety dollars on new flowers in my yard. You name it, the Everblooming Geranium, Blue Fortune Hummingbird Mint, hibiscus, Gardinia, Allium Bulb Tulip, Blueberry Charcoal Tulips, Ice Cristal, Hyancinth Trio. The most wonderful ones are Suncatcher Double Daffodils. Boy, this makes your garden bright and happy yellow. It stuns the eye. Or the Dahlia and its pretty petals with a gorgeous look like God painted it with one purple stroke. I could be wrong if I said they are an excellent mauve color. The Ice Cream Tulip, a delicious flower by the look. One that got me enthused and laughing is Silly Girl Lily. It has a silly pink bloom and bright yellow petals with dotted stars like a pickled face.
Pickled face! Silly Girl Lily is precisely what I can describe my lady in the review in this Flower Girl. Kemi Williams (Damilola Adegbite). She has a silly face, and Chris Attoh (Umar Abubakar) is the Meg Ryan meet Billy Cristal in When Harry Met Sally (1989). As a matter of fact, Chris and Damilola have met before in some stupid and silly film: Six Hours To Christmas (2010). Gosh, it is ridiculous. Pebbles (Damilola Adegbite) locks Reggie (Chris Attoh) in a closet as her Sugar Daddy walks into her apartment on Christmas Eve, brandishing a pistol. She hits him upside his head, and he falls unconscious. Pebbles and Reggie hardly hide the body away when her intrusive bible-toting partner barges into the living room. It was so hilarious and silly. I approach this review with Six Hours To Christmas on my mind. That is what good movies do. They stick with you.
Chris Attoh and Damilola are chemistry made up in the Nollywood lab. Studios always find actors who can perfectly play against each other, for instance, Catherine Hepburn against Spencer Tracy. Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn, in Best Friends, or Catherine Hepburn and James Fonda in, On Golden Pond. Attoh and Damiliola are good together and acts like one. Umar is Kemi’s childhood playmate, and both grew up considering each other as a boyfriend and girlfriend. Kemi has seen and catered to too many marriages in her life. She is now an adult, and the question of marriage frequently comes into her mind, and it is not long when she broaches the idea to Umar. Umar promises when finances are alright, for which Kemi gets all worked up. However, no engagement ring.
When Kemi acts crazy by dumping a bucket of ice water over Umar’s head in front of his boss, Umar is in disgrace and pissed: “I can’t do this anymore. We’re not children anymore, Kemi. For a long time now, I’ve been moving on…yes, of course, and you just been stuck in Lala land.” Kami, “Umar, I love you.”However, Umar’s anger was short-lived, and they met in the most unexpected place: Tunde’s house party when both show up.
Kami had been hit by an unknown motorist and ended up in his bed. She woke up to find that the motorist was no other than the celebrated Tunde Kulani (Blossom Chukwujekwu); a whole new world opened to her. Kami had slept in Tunde Kulani’s siphon-draped bed! She melts for the celebrity. Then comes Tunde’s invitation to his house party. Umar, too, happens to show up at the party.
Umar looks more like a Forrest Gump character when he enters the scene in a buttoned-up colorful window-pane shirt. His delivery is as sluggish and lame as Tom Hanks when he addresses his girlfriend, Robin Wright. Umar seems out of place and timid in the party, with all well-dressed guests, especially when Tunde makes him look ridiculous in front of Kami, and he back-hands his jaw. It didn’t go well for both Umar and Tunde. They both slug at each other and end in a pool. Umar hauls his Kami out of there and gives her an engagement ring in the next scene. I guess he is scared shit of the celebrity power of Tunde, so he hurried to put an engagement ring on her finger.
Kami has already been corrupted by celebrity influence. Everything she does with Umar is pretense. Her heart has been stolen away by Tunde and his siphon-draped bed. Then comes the day Kemi and Umar are getting married. She told her mother, Mrs. Williams (Tosan Edremonda Egbeye) she didn’t feel anything for Umar.
Kami, “I don’t.”
Mrs. Williams, “You don’t what? What is it?”
Kemi, “I don’t feel anything. It’s like I’m still waiting for something to happen.”
Mrs. Williams, “…you’ll get used to it.”
Kemi, “Mummy, I don’t want to get used to it. It’s not right. I can’t do this.”
The mother gets up and hugs her daughter: “You’re my only daughter, and I want you to be happy. Follow your heart.”
The moment of truth in this Flower Girl is when Kami walks into Umar’s dressing room as he fights to button up his wedding jacket. This got to be the moment of his life. She says, “Umar, we need to talk. I don’t want to get married.”
Umar, “I know.”
Kemi, “You know?”
Umar, “You see, I’ve been watching you…, and quite frankly, you’ve lost your sparkle…but I am still willing to marry you.”
“Wow, you make it seem like I’m a burden…Umar, I’m not going to marry you if we don’t love each other.”
Umar puts up his best defense here: I’m no longer a paralegal. I’m an associate. I’m making real money. I will look after you; I will look after your family as I have always intended to.” Umar has lost the battle. Kemi runs from his wedding alter, in Umar’s wedding gown, with her shoes in hand. She chases after Tunde Kulani at the check-in counter at Mutala Mohammad Airport on his way out to Hollywood. Both hug and kiss before he boards the plane.
I made a calculated statement on the character of Pebbles in 6 Hours To Christmas that she is the kind of girl that will blame you for her own fault. Here, even when Umar is literally on his knees begging for them to get married, just take in what she says, “I’m not going to marry you if we don’t love each other.” Hell no! It’s her who doesn’t love Umar and not the other way around. She has fallen head over heels for the celebrity, and her parents, too, support her move.
The screenplay puts Umar in a disadvantaged position. A poor paralegal, he is but promised to be an associate in a legal firm, which would surely make him more money. The firm, by the way, represents Tunde Kulani and is afraid they will lose his account if Umar insists on loving Kami. Literally, Kami becomes the chip in the love affair with Tunde, at the disadvantage of Umar. He is not only going to lose the love of his life, but the position promised to him as an associate in the firm has become precarious. Flower Girl must have started as a comedy but ended as a simple romantic flick, which didn’t favor Umar because the screenplay gave him no room to fight. No confrontation.
The most beautiful part of Flowergirl is its display of flowers and making flowers its centerpiece. I picked a line or two in the screenplay, not quite understandable to most viewers. Tunde and Kami are in the flower garden, and Kami asks about him going to America. Instead of a straight answer, he goes on to use this personification: “Don’t you love this city? Too many people, too much traffic. Too much this, not enough that. It’s not meant to be here, but it is. And it is growing and thriving. That means something.” George Orwell did say, “All art is propaganda.” You figure!
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