Simony Production presents Olu Jacobs (Sir Louis), Van Viker (Nick), Jackie Appiah (Louisa), Tonto Dikeh (Biola), Chinozie Okoli (Ebie), Screenplay/Director, Tchidi Chikere (dgn); Director of Photography, Wale Adediran, Producer/Executive Producer, Sylvester Obadigi. © 2018
A scene in this movie reawakened a long shut-off desire to write a novel about my Mallam father’s “self-righteous” character. He always told me that men, especially Islamic believers, don’t cry. I’m soft and usually shed a tear or two in the most pitiful situations. Yet until the day my father lost his first son to poison, I saw him cry and cry like a baby. During all those times, when I stood by his yelling and was traumatized by his raging about me breaking up so quickly, I noticed he had held back tears for all those years. We all have those tears waiting for the most grieving times when we can’t fake it but let it pour out of our systems.
Louisa’s father, an overbearing single parent, an old, respected soldier for his military valor, his character in his autobiography he is struggling to write, claims himself to be strict, stubborn, and stoic. Strict and stubborn, I could support, but Stoic, I can’t give him for a character, for a reason I will soon give. To be stoic, one must have a sense of resignation, but for the love and care of his daughter, Sir Louis couldn’t swallow any man taking away his daughter. See how he nearly turns into a peeping tom behind window curtains, spying on Louis and Nick, smooshing.
Louisa’s (Jackie Appiah) fiancé, Nicholas (Van Vicker), is visiting Louisa from Canada in Lagos, Nigeria. A trip that promises romance and an eventual marriage. That’s how Louisa and Nicholas thought, but boy, are you kidding me. Louisa’s father, this old soldier with a stringent military background, is Louisa’s only living parent, and he is so protective of his daughter that it seems ridiculous. Louisa’s father puts Nicholas in a boot camp with the pretense to know if Nicholas is good enough for her. In the first place, Nicholas and Louisa mustn’t sleep in the same room, romance each other under his watchful eyes. Just as Nicholas has enough of his naggings and watchfulness, so is Louisa.
Louisa absconded from home. Neither Nicholas nor his father knew where she was. The father suspected Nicholas but soon dismissed that. Now that Louisa’s whereabouts have become paramount between Nicholas and his future father-in-law they bond, drink coffee quietly, consolidate, and become a team to find Louisa. Eventually, Louisa was found, and she and her fiancé Nicholas left for Canada to get married. The father has seen a real man who honestly cares for his daughter.
Louisa misses her father shortly after, especially when she hears he married a younger woman. She believes some gold digger has gotten into her father’s head and messed with it. She leaves Canada for Nigeria and meets Biola (Tonto Dikeh). Biola is almost the same age as her. Another front opens in this melodrama. Louisa’s turn is to protect her father from this young gold digger. And even set up an undercover to spy on her. She soon finds Biola is fake, which never changes Sir Louisa’s mind about his young wife. Meanwhile, Louisa’s husband in Canada starts cheating with a girl who interrupts Nick on the phone with his wife. He jumps on a flight back to Nigeria.
The moment of truth in the story is when Louisa enters the living room, where Sir Louis and Biola are sitting. Louisa is disheveled, and it’s like a bad hair day. She is seemingly losing her marriage to another woman in Canada and blames her dad:
Louisa, “My husband is cheating. I left my marriage and came here to save you from this scammer you call your wife, but you won’t believe me. Instead, you went deeper and deeper into her arms. I lost my marriage because I wanted to save you, but you don’t want to be saved.”
Sir Louis, “If Nick is cheating on you, how can that be my fault?”
Biola, “She’s right.”
Sir Louis, “What?”
Biola, “Everything she said, she’s right. I was a skimmer. I came into your life for money. I was a fake. But now I’m real; I love you.” (Turns to Louisa) I know it would please your daughter to see me go.”
Sir Louis is now sitting defeated, with tears running down his cheeks. Biola is packing her suitcase in the room upstairs, and Louisa enters.
Louisa, “Don’t go, Biola. My father loves you. I have never seen my father weep.”
To see one’s father shed tears as my father did with the loss of his first son to poison made my heart melt into pieces, as Louisa stood over her father and saw him run drops of tears for the love of Biola. I didn’t see Olu Jacobs (Lawson) shed that many tears when he lost Roselyn (Omotola Jalade) to Johnny (St Obi) in Reckless Heart (2013), pp 195-196, Nollywood Movie Reviews Vol 1. May his soul rest in perfect peace. Instead, he graciously gives her over, only to be disappointed by Johnny.
I had never reviewed Tonto Dikeh since Soul Desire (2010), pp 301-302, Nollywood Movie Review, Vol 1, when her soul was consumed by the desire for a starving artist in a love escapade, and she and the young lover were killed by her husband. I should give this to her; she has remained trim and still robust like one coming into her twenty-somethings. Jackie Appiah has not aged since I first reviewed her movie in 2008; the ages have gone by; hence, I can’t remember the film’s name, but she may surely use more lighting to retain her usual glow in future films.
I can’t remember when I last reviewed Tchidi Cherie’s project. You bet it was his Beautiful Soul (2008), pp 185-186, Nollywood Movie Reviews Vol 1, which featured Genevieve Nnaji. Chikere has the strength to write about memorable souls, stories that would make you tear up but is weak in reviewing his dailies before final edits. That Beautiful Soul had a purple dot that followed the actors in every scene, followed by misplaced dialogues, which I believe must have come from a poor sound recording. These were turn-offs. He has cleaned up on those defects. Here, however, the ambient sound takes a life of its own; it is loud and obstructive, and dialogues sound like an echo chamber.
When writers create one character that could be an opposite or a protagonist or antagonist and manage them to a full resolution, they have done their best. Tchidi has done his best by incorporating an overpowering and overprotecting character in the person of Sir Louis and pitting him against Nick, testing both characters’ pulse towards one another, falling out and making it. Again, falling out and making it, and finally bringing them towards one common goal together through one incident –the disappearance of Louisa, he has done what a perfect screenwriter could do. I look forward to seeing Tchidi’s production on Netflix.