Balmin Gilead Movie Productions, in Association with True Vine Productions, present Mawuli Gavor (Ekijeme), Beverly Naya (Lola), Efe Irele (Teniola), Toyin Abraham (Kemi), Shaffe Bello (Mrs. Makinde), Jide Kosoko (Dr. Makinde), Tina Mba (Sisi Toyin), Deyemi Okalawan (Joshua), Uto Rosman (Wande), Joke Silva (Mrs. Chukwuemeka), Okey Uzoeshi (Charlie), Producer, Kathryn Fasegha; Sarah Lawal; Cinematographer, Ken Attoh; Screenplay Kathryn Fasgha. © 2019
There isn’t much to 2 Weeks in Lagos even as it lined up the best of the Yoruba best in Nollywood. Beverly Naya (Lola), Efe Irele (Teniola), and Tina Mba (Sisi Toyin). Joke Silva (Mrs. Chukwuemeka) and Jide Kosoko (Dr. Makinde) are all familiar faces in this movie. It is a story about a young man, Ejikeme (Mawuli Gavor), a New York investment banker visiting his home country with the prospect of finding new business and investors. A Voice Over at the end of the film says, “This is Lagos, the land of dreams. Did you find yours?” Ejikeme finds his dream wife.
Charlie (Okey Uzoeshi) brings his partner and friend to the Makinde family and meets Charlie’s sister, Lola (Beverly Naya). It’s love at first sight. Mrs. Makinde (Saffi Bello), as experience mothers can be, notices Ejikeme’s sly look at Lola, and Lola keeps looking in Ejikeme’s direction. Not long, Ejikeme proposes to Lola. Love was already in the air in this house as Lola’s uncle was getting married the following week. Lola would be standing in the wedding, and to which she invites Ejikeme, but accepts only if Lola could grant her a dance. She agrees.
Ejikeme’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Chukwuemeka, are knee-deep in Lagos politics and want their son to marry Teniola (Efe Irele). A daughter of the future running-mate in a senatorial campaign four years later. To Ekejeme, the idea of marrying a girl for whom he has no love and only for his dad’s political ambition was ridiculous. “I can pay for you to divorce her if your marriage or my relationship with her father doesn’t work.” That’s what Ekejeme’s dad said when pressed about the fallout in the relationship. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world to lose his soul,” Ejikeme sensibly and philosophically laments to his mother.
A discovery connected Ejikeme’s mother and his aunt Sisi Toyin (Tina Mba) to the crime. Since Ejikeme couldn’t relent, his mother arranged for Lola’s kidnapping and severe beating so that she could get out of the way. The Chukwuemeka family apologized to Lola’s family. In the end, the Makinde family joined the Chukwuemeka in their children’s holy matrimony as a united family. The traditional marriage is fantastic, with that ritual and all. Keme and Lola eventually kiss, even to his mother’s disgust. And finally, the church wedding.
Like I said earlier, 2 Week In Lagos is more of an evening treat one can take a romantic pal to watch. There’s not much controversy or characters fighting each other or antagonist fighting the protagonist; they all seem on the same dramatic level. Now I understand why a reviewer classifies this movie as soapy because it is. It is more or less like a daytime soap opera, but I was hauled into watching it when I saw the lineup of all the Nollywood brand names.
This specific film’s promises were never met in this film. Great dramatic points were suggested in various scenes but were never prominent to help put some meat on this bare-bone drama. Even if not as accurate as The Princess of My Life (2008), 2 Weeks In Lagos demonstrated a trait of controversial issues. You remember when Kofi Ajarolo and Chief Mba joined partners, and their children, Desmond Elliot and Ini Edo fell in love. Tonto Dikeh and Muna Obiekwe were all featured in that film. The business relationship between the parents didn’t last, and one partner had a heart attack. The business partnership plot added meat to The Princess…, though I cannot vouch for its essence or weight to the story in question. I expected the political future of both parents in 2 Weeks…to have bloomed at a certain point and, like all political relationships, falter.
There are two famous scenes where Lola is reading a novel and Kemi too reading the same in his world. And there’s another scene Kemi is talking about his love of church. I guess the script would have made us marry these two qualities because Lola and Keme were made for each other by the love of reading (the same book) and religion (the love for Christ). However, the Scriptwriter past that on. Yet that was a dramatic point: “What book are you reading?” “Which church do you go to?” These are questions in a drama that would help characters come alive. Place a common bond between characters that will make them stick together: Sports, sports teams, books, church services, etcetera. All I’m saying is to find ways to put meat on the bare bones of a drama.
Sisi Toyin (Tina Mba) tried hard to give 2 Weeks In Lagos a dramatic boost. She discredits Lola’s role in breaking her daughter Kemi’s (Toyin Abraham) relationship with her fiance, but that didn’t stick; the allegation fizzled. The script runs to the finish line without giving much ado to asides. Instead, it forces Keme’s mother to apologize to the Makinde family for the assault on their child. Lame. Even before the sore on her forehead could heal, we put the kidnapping incident behind us like it was nothing. The wedding bell for Lola and Keme was ringing already. We wear our razor-sharp and crispy agbadas to the wedding.
In Kambili: The Whole 30 Yards (2020), Mawuli Gavor as John and Nancy Isime as Kambili have featured leads. Their relationship didn’t last as John demonstrates, according to Ozioma Ogbaji’s screenplay, the unmanageable, insolent, and disrespectful character on the one hand. Against the wanton, spoilt brat of Kambili, who couldn’t fix her sleeping bed or clean her room. In Kambili…John presents her mother’s wedding ring to engage Kambili. In the end, she has to whisk it off her finger, put it in John’s palm, and close his fingers over it at the end of the engagement: “You are arrogant, disrespectful, and uncouth.” Here in 2 Weeks…Keme helps Lola wear his mother’s necklace to signify severe and everlasting love. Kambili…must have watched 2 Weeks In Lagos and copied that scene.