A Starking Productions present Nkem Awoh (Polycap), Patience Ozokwor (Monica), Okonwa Richard (Ejike) Pianka Patrick (Ifeoma), Stanley Ugochinyere (Chibuzor), Whitney (Chinaza). Screenplay, Charles Okonkwo, Glory Oviasuyi; Director of Photography, Ikeokwu Harry. C; Director, Darlington Ogbodo Kelechi; Producers/Executive Producer, Ifeoma Anekwe, Kelvin Anekwe. © 2025.
I had to go back in time and watch Mr. Trouble (2018) to get a refreshing feeling of the two famous Nollywood screen partners, Nkem Owoh and Patience Ozokwor. The movie is one of the Nollywood Vaudeville productions, and the two characters were a staple on African entertainment screens then. Though aging, they remain energetic. In Mr. Trouble, I laughed out loud when Patience had the frail Nkem on her shoulder, and he was shouting to his brother, “Eliza lifted me up! Eliza lifted me! Eliza lifted me up!” A funny scene. Mr. and Mrs. tend to be funny but wade seriously into the life of a married couple whose lives are burdened by matrimonial loads and overburdened by their egos. Instead of being funny, the show forces viewers, just like their immediate family (children and one grandchild), to take sides in this family feud.
Mr. and Mrs., the Movie, is a mature comedy with not much room for laughter but plenty of food for thought. It is an experience for adults, and it involves what happens in a matrimonial home. To wit: I am a cabdriver, but I help my illiterate wife with her health care, and she passed the certification exam and got a lucrative job at a health facility. Suddenly, she wanted our accounts separated, and I have not had access to her finances since. And, as a matter of fact, she looked down on me and my low taxi earnings. You get the picture.
Polycap (what’s in a name!) Nkem Owoh, and Monica (Patient Ozokwor) team up in this comedy. Polycap, in his youth, had brought a young wife from the village to the city. He taught her all she needed to know about a modern home. He was the sole breadwinner then. And both have two boys and two girls. The eldest boy is now living on his own. Monica had pestered Polycap to help her go into the teaching field, which he did. At one point, Polycap had stopped doing whatever he was doing and began working for the school system as a driver, and was promoted to a senior-level driver.
After many years in the teaching service, Monica is lucky enough to be promoted to District Supervisor and is assigned a car. Her driver happens to be the senior driver in the system, who happens to be her husband, Polycap–one of those nature’s mysteries. A husband (senior driver) becomes his wife’s (District Supervisor) driver. The children suspect something is wrong when their dad won’t touch his dinner, and they assume his disgruntlement is due to the mother’s acceptance of a job as his boss’s lady. The children first split over the “lifetime opportunities,” Ifeoma (Pianka Patrick), the daughter, could say. “A lifetime opportunity that will ruin the peace of this family?” Son Ejike (Okonwa Richard) counters.
The writers cleverly manipulate the plot to meet at a juncture, naturally, even when the script rambles at a certain point. Here is what happens when the table changes in a matrimonial home. Polycap still assumes the dominant African husband while driving his boss, Monica, his wife. The conflict between husband and wife extends beyond the house and spills into the office. She made Polycap stand at attention instead of letting him sit in a chair in her office. She wants Polycap to open the car door for her. Polycap shouldn’t use the car for his own pleasure. In all these instances, Polycap’s old and withered face turns “puckered.”
The problem between Mr. and Mrs. is a subject of conflict between their children and even extends to Ifeoma’s gentle boy caller as he answered a hypothetical question in favor of the man in the relationship between man a wife. Charles and Glory, as screenwriters, take a straightforward topic and transform it into a universally dramatic theme. Polycap and Monica, had been married for so long, built a life around three children, Polycap built a beautiful home and just when both are running out of life, old age creeping on them, and are about to go into retirements, Polycap, from driving, and Monica from teaching in the classroom, their lives take unexpected turn of event: Polycap should drive for his new boss lady, Monica, his wife, who turns out to be the new District Supervisor.
He had married Monica, Polycap I mean, from the village years ago, who he could teach modern city life. And now, just now, he is playing subordinate to Monica. See how Monica beckons to Polycap with her finger not to sit on the arm of her office chair, while on the phone talking to their oldest son. Polycap feels demeaned, and disrespected. In the evening after work, Polycap comes home and Monica like usual couldn’t serve him dinner. “When we go to the office, you are the boss, but in here you are a housewife.” Polycap blasted. Next day for work Polycap is sick and couln’t take her boss lady to work.
And in the evening, when Monica comes home from work, she asks whether Polycap called the office to report his illness. Monica thinks Polycap should follow “protocol.” “Monica, why have you gone so wild? You left me here sick, and you must report my sickness to the office. Have you forgotten you are my wife?” “I am only following protocol, my duty.” Monica counters.” “Monica, your duty here is to take care of me!”
Such is the irreparable problem descending on this household, with no end in sight. The mother takes a job, and the household is in chaos. The choice is whether the mother leaves her career or the father stays home and seeks forgiveness from his wife. Chibuzor (Stanley Ugochinyere), the oldest son from Abuja, must come in to rescue the family from damnation. Both parents explain the reasons for the problems between them. Monica’s reason for taking the job and being unable to resign from it is that every time she asks her husband for something, his comments “diminish” her.
Chibuzor negotiates and resolves the conflict between his begrudged parents, promising they must work for four more months and retire together, finally. In fact, Chibuzor is taking his father abroad on vacation. Writers Charles Okonkwo and Glory Oviasuyi put their whole hearts into the story by saving us the mental conflict as we continued guessing how Mr. and Mrs. could resolve their dispute.