YN Productions presents Yvonne Nelson (Naadi Mills), Yvonne Okoro (Chioma Williams), Prince David Osei (Greg), Mofi Duncan (Randy), Michelle Attoh (Wendy), Alexandra Amon ( Jaya Asaidu), Irene Logan (Ama), Kweku Eliott (Ruffy), Tobi Bakre (Jojo), Belinda Zattah (Timi) Jessica Williams (Donna), David Ankra (Kwesi)Director of Photography, John Passah; Director, Pascal Amanfo; Producer, Yvonne Nelson; Screenplay, Yvonne Nelson. (2019)
Where did Ghallywood come from with such a quaint title, ‘Fix us?’ No, kidding three or four-word titles of claims for movies can be a turn-off for me. Matter of fact they can seem juvenile. For example, My Wife Is Now My Best Friend, Why I Denied My Dirty Wife, The Woman Who Showed Me Life. Such titles only seem like entering a building material store and you end up in the How to Department: How to makeover your living room, etc. Present me titles like Deadly Affair, you’ll be curious as to know what is deadly an affair until you hit the play button and see Majid and Osei, those two blood-curdling characters, standing face to face for the love of Jackie.
Ghallywood in this project draws upon its old warehouse of players, who helped build its cinema factory. There’s Yvonne Nelson, wet behind her ears and a novice to the glare of the motion picture camera in Tears of Womanhood (2006). It seems like yesterday, but she is closing in on the second decade of “Light, camera, action.” Then Yvonne Okoro in 4 Play Reloaded (2010) and Agony of The Christ (2008). She had this cute little Nyas about her. Succulent. I could have dated her on the set of any movie I would have directed—the worst badass in the Ghallywood outfit. Prince Osei is a bony fellow on the set of Hoodlums but has now grown plumbing cheekbones with a broader face in Fix Us. Cheers to the good life!
Fix Us has the pure characteristics of showbiz: sex, drugs, and alcohol. As with every new artist (actor) who breaks into show business, it always goes into his or her head. One is no longer worried about rent; you live in a mansion, rub shoulders with the rich and famous, and drive the best cars. You are five domestic staff thick. Suddenly, you feel on top of the world.
Fix Us reminds me of Wedding Party Reloaded (2017). Two entertainment managers, Daniel (Okry Uzoeshi) and Bode (Melvin Oduala), of two recording artists, who were notoriously gossiped about as a faggot and a lesbian. The managers feared their clients’ notoriety would cause them to lose fans, affecting their bank accounts. They stage a gambit to get the two stars to pretend to be lovers. They want the public to see them going shopping, into hotels, and taking rides around town. At first, it was a fake stunt so the nosy journalists could give them a break and dispel the bad news. It turns out the young girl, Edesuwa Etomi, and the boy, Stanley Ekwelike indeed fall in love, and many nights soak their pillows with tears for each other.
The last time I saw Yvonne Nelson in a movie, on her knees praying fervently to God to grant her a husband, was in 4 Play Reloaded. God gives her prayer and gets a medical doctor with a six-pack abdomen, healthy and young. In the movie, Fix Us she has a similar complaint: “An old actress with four kids from four different men is getting married. Look at me, I don’t even have a boyfriend.” She gets an infatuated, obsessed fan of her. Timi (Belinda Sakafor), her house help fixed her. Jojo (Tobi Bakre) has a mental problem and soon proves so. As Naadie says about Jojo, “I finally found myself a real fan.” Especially when Jojo rhymes his way into her heart. Well, I finally find myself a younger character who can act the crazy part like Majid. He nails the crazy part here as Majid Michel would.
Chioma Williams (Yvonne Okoro) in Beyonce: The President’s Daughter (2006), Beyonce falls head over heels for Raj (Van Vicker). Here in Fix Us, she falls head-on for Randy (Mofi Duncan), a happily married man who happens to be her acting director. His wife threatens to go to the media with the scandal.
When I see Jaya (Alexzander Amon) dating Greg (Prince David Osei) I knew she was not in luck. I have seen this guy shot by Majid Michel, his badass movie partner in Deadly Affair (2012), who ended up in a handcuff in both One More Night (2013) and Hoodlums (2011) And here, he jumps bail in the UK for a rape accusation, EFCC on his tail in Nigeria, and ends up in Ghana, all hidden away from the one he calls the love of his life is, ridiculous.
Such is the present dispositions of the Ghallywood nouveau riche. They say power corrupts but here I will add fame to that adage. Fame to the newly rich is like one over dozing on alcohol. Haven’t we heard of the numerous suicides committed by entertainment stars who can’t handle fame? Naadie feels she’s going to leave a spinster if she doesn’t hurry up and get someone in her bed. After hearing the Ode Jojo left her, she was done for. Chioma thinks being a star, she can get Randy at her will. Jaya plays it safe with Greg. He failed a simple fidelity test.
As in Wedding Party Reloaded, entertainment managers are business people whose sole business is managing characters who think they are above all. But one thing they can’t let go of and are mindful of is their bottom line. They want to stay in business at all costs. Wendy (Michelle Attoh), Manages the Fame Management entity, cleverly takes care of the heady wine scandals, and tidies up all the loose ends in her outfit. Jojo is put away into an asylum; Naadie dispels her scandal to the press with a one-liner–––“It’s only a movie.” Randy’s wife who threatens to scandalize Chioma is also equally blackmailed. Wendy tells her the story of her being a surrogate mother of her son Ray, which if Randy were to know could cause her an untold disgrace.
Rewarding moments in this film: When Jojo barges into Naadie’s house. Besides the trancelike state of altered consciousness, looking at Naadie, he freaks her out when he takes off his shirt and exposes the tattoo of her name on his back. I may not call this panic but already Naadie was unsteady. And as she goes upstairs to wear something decent, and comes downstairs, Jojo was gone. The instance when Randy’s wife tells about her suspicion of cheating, and calls out the title of a book in her hand, “Why Men Think Women Are Fools.” Women sometimes use the sixth sense to plow out deceit in their partners. My wife once accused me one night of having sex with another woman, as I walked into our bedroom, “How do you know?” I asked. “From your voice. It is always heavy after sex.”
Fix Up is structurally sound. There is a story and the most notable part is the interesting characters the writer Yvonne Nelson creates. She made her characters to be cared for; they are real like everyday people and they made us understand their situations and their weaknesses. This is the story one can pit for a character like I pity Jojo’s character the first time he appears on the screen. “I live different lives in my head every day.” He says to Naadie. Naadie forgives the “little boy” because she experiences orgasm with him every now and then. I pity Randy’s wife for the labyrinthine situation she finds herself in. Patience Ozorkwo once commented that Ghallywood produces excellent structural stories.