Broadway tv Production presents Mercy Johson (Bisola Gomez), Jim Iyke (Jason Lawal), Toyin Ibraham (Abiodun), Sola Sobowale (Mrs. Gomez), Akin Lewis (Mr. Gomez), Ali Nuhu (Usman), Ken Ericks (Kinsley). Executive Producer, Samuel Olatunji; Produced by Toyin Abraham; Screenplay by Joy Isi Bewaji; Director, Biodun Stephen; Director of Photography, Dickson Godwin, Emmanuel Igbekele. © 2018
Yes, it’s true; art imitates life. By the three Nollywood movies I have reviewed, Isoken, When Love Happens, and now Seven and A Half Dates, I stand to testify the legitimacy of that adage. I experienced that with Isoken, then When Love Happens, and now with Seven and A Half Dates. In art form, the Nigerian community tells the world that a woman, a full-grown woman whose hand has not been asked in marriage, is an unfulfilled woman. The bridegroom’s family wants to see the groom come lay prostrates in front of the bride’s father; the father touches his head in blessings and pours a libation to the gods. Until then, one is never married by the standard of the gods.
“It doesn’t matter what a woman accomplishes in her life. She can find the cure for aids; she could cure the world’s hunger, even cancer, and still wouldn’t matter unless she was able to bag herself a husband and pop out some babies.” Isoken.
In When Love Happens, Mo, under pressure from her parents to get married, especially so when she is a wedding planner, launches a video blog to bring men into her nest. She exposes herself to the world at large, to men, not quite her taste and class. She’s in a hurry to get a partner because her mates are all getting married, and her biological clock won’t wait.
In Seven and A Half Dates, Mr. Gomez (Akin Lewis) is on a mission to get his older daughter get married. He arranges that she met with ten sons of his secondary school classmates. Ten dates, and among them all, there could be one suitor who’ll impress her. Among the suitors having dates with Bisola Gomez (Mercy Johnson), she experiences characters who are more into themselves; who do not care much for women than their businesses. Mostly talking-heads. He comes across as one whose mother left his father because he beats on her. That suitor, Kinsley (Ken Ericks), dismisses his mother as a loser for the fact that “A woman is defined by her marital status. No matter what she could have achieved, she was still a failure…women who die in marriages for the love of husband and children are true martyrs. I mean, It’s the West that has corrupted our women…I need a real woman. A proverb 31 type of woman.”
Bisola, in the wilderness to find someone she can relate to, runs into a guy at a bar as she waits for a date. The guy wears a beret, reminiscent of French writers and artists. He’s the soi desant, columnist of a popular Adore Magazine, and she Bisola adores J. Lawal’s column. Bisola meeting Jason marks a watershed moment in the story. Jason volunteers to instruct Bisola on how to fall in love without throwing oneself over to a man. It is Deja Vue for Bisola. She finally gets to know that the mystery friend at the bar is no other than the coveted writer, J Lawal.
The backdrop of this story is that not all marriages are recommendable for today’s woman. Bode has been abusive to Mabel, with both her Mom and Dad’s knowledge, but they kept quiet, thinking he’ll change. On the day of the wedding, Mabel refuses to say, “I do,” to everyone’s surprise. Now Bisola stands vindicated as she has never rushed into marriage but takes her time to know J. Lawal with whom she thinks she can relate romantically. Mr. Gomez, too, signs his name on the relationship and invites the writer home for dinner.
Isoken is lucky to have left her underpants in the public laundromat, and a White guy found them and brought them to her. As embarrassing as it appears, it turns out to be the beginning of a relationship that came in a different color. For instance, when the Oyibo would meet her in her office, he isn’t ashamed to tell her about “farting.” The down to earth jokes turns out to be the connecting point to her loving heart.
In When Love Happens, Mo was looking for love everywhere, never knowing that love was right under her feet. She runs into many different men, and not one of them could meet her criteria of love. Even her old school lover, who happens to be in town for the wedding, proves to be the same old player Mo knew from school. When at last, she meets him with another girl, Mo rushes into the arms of Tobe, the friend she has known but never noticed him to be in love with her. Waruche R. Opia (Mo) and Gideon Okeke (Tobe) in When Love Happens is the same with Mercy Johnson and Jim Iyke in Seven and a Half Dates. The two storylines are too akin to separate them from one another.
Isoken does stand apart from Seven and A Half Dates and When Love Happens (2014), even as they strive to exploit the same marriage theme. It is a well-laid out drama. Isoken got introduced at her younger sister’s wedding. A guy who she finds out was insolent and uppity. And when she runs into the Whiteman, who takes her across Lagos on a motorbike, checks out museums, and eats doughnuts on the street, she takes a liking to him than the black fellow. Seven and A Half…and When Love Happens seemingly looked staged and hurried. Being veterans of acting, Jim Iyke and Mercy Johnson did not have to prove their usual selves. They acted naturally to flesh out their characters.
Toyin Abraham’s Seven and A Half Dates production live impression on us by lining up all of the present-day Nollywood heavies. However, not Mercy Johnson, Jim Iyke, Ken Erics, Ali Nuhu, Sola Sobowale, and Akin Lewis could save the shallow and soapy drama.