Zack Orji (Robert), Shaffy Bello (Davina), Stan Nze (Tom), Uzor Arukwe (Banjamin), Moc Madu (Ebuka), Fred Idenhen (Okon), Ceec (Odera Olivia Orji), Story, Stan Nze, Abdul TJ; Screenplay, Abdul TJ; Director of Photography, Ladipo Abiola; Director, Tope Alake; Associate Producer, Blessing Obassi; Producer, Stanley Ngediegwu; Executive Producer, Element 47Pictures. ©2020.
I like single-word titles, especially when it is a verb, like in Split (doing word). They can be quaint, concise, mysterious, magical. They can be thought-provoking and excellent for heading a drama, unlike self-explanatory, elementary ones: Another Day to Love, Like Father Like Daughter, and The Thing About Happiness. The mystical aspect of one word title, is that it creates a curiosity and longing in you that can only be quenched by either reading or watching what the writer hides behind the one word claim up there you gazing at.
I won’t tell any lies; I have a beef with the writer, Abdul TJ. I am standing in front of an eight-foot-long dining table in a Chinese buffet, and before me spreads a myriad of dishes! There’s a romance plot, a drunk matriarch of the family plot, and an intrigue in a political campaign plot. Oh, and an identity plot, before I forgot. And I am amid this sea of plots; I don’t know which one will carry the story to the finish line because the sage don’t–can’t–tell us. He wants us to have the experience by ourselves, without him taking part.
Without not much ado, I shall go straight to the story of how it unfolds. Robert (Zack Orji) heads a wealthy but fragile family with a bedridden, alcoholic wife, Davina (Shaffy Bello). Fragile, I said, in the sense that there are hidden bones in the family closet that, if they came to light, would break and split the family into two. Robert and Davina have two boys: Benjamin (Uzor Arukwe), and Tom (Stan Nze), both of whom are successful and enterprising. These are the principal characters in our story.
Now, let’s sit by the fireside; it’s story time. Tom drives down from Abuja, and His older brother, Benjamin, arrived home from visiting Ghana, bringing a six-month-old girlfriend he befriended while there with him. And all sit down to dinner, when Davina walks in, and Robert sarcastically comments, “So, you finally decided to pull yourself out of bed, ha?” Davina let the comment pass. But Benjamin’s haphazard prayer, “Dear Lord, bless this food,” got Robert quips, Davina, snaps at Robert. “What are you laughing at? What is funny?….A man of no faith.” Welcome home to Robert and his family. We are about to experience a family quarrel yet to be told.
During a family meeting, Robert reports to the family his political determination to stand for a Senate seat in an upcoming election. Not minding the surprise on their faces, he goes on to implore everyone to behave themselves, as they will be under heavy media scrutiny. Before they could digest Robert’s political remark, Davina retorts with the cold news, “I’m leaving your father. I’ve filed divorce papers.” The news threw the family into disarray. Benjamin, always on the father’s side, and Tom, the mother’s side, get into their “whose side you’re on” squabble over the announcement.
The high point in the story is when Davina discloses that she’s leaving with her son for Abuja. Robert discloses to her that she must also take Benjamin with her because Benjamin won’t have a place in his household. “Benjamin isn’t my biological son.” She is speechless, her face turned purple, when Robert places the DNA test result before her. Her brow furrowed. She gets up in anger. “You are a monster!” She says as she clatters away. Tom and Benjamin have just discovered the depth and complexity of their parents’ marital dispositions. What choice would they make in the face of the present situation? The patriarch, a struggling photographer, had, from the outset of the relationship, blackmailed the wealthy Davina girl into marrying him, and she, in turn, sought solace in the bottle. Hence, she cheats with the gateman, Okon (Fred Idenhen), who got her pregnant and gave birth to Benjamin.
Meanwhile, the six-month-old girlfriend Benjamin brings into Robert’s household is a mole planted by opposing politicians. Cece (Odera Olivia Orji) is an investigative journalist who has recorded everything in the household and presented it to the newspaper through Ebuka (Moc Madu). Robert was moved from the ballot to avoid the scandal. For once, I praise the intelligence of Tom, who uncannily suspects Cece, and he was right. His dour demeanor throughout the entire story makes me forgive his aloofness.
They say that: All’s well that ends well: No killings, but there was some minor damage to Cece and Ebuka, in the underground bunker. Zack Orji appeared in The Bridge (2017)—a story about ethnic discrimination between the Yoruba and Igbo. Dominic Maxwell (The Bridge) didn’t want the young Yoruba pilot to marry his Igbo medical doctor. A tragedy in the movie occurred when she died in the Yoruba forest, in the night and on her way to attend to the pilot’s ailing Oba , father. And upon hearing the news of his daughter’s demise in Yoruba forest, he arranged for a posse to go and bring Ademola Adedoyin and bury the man alive in the same forest—a chilling experience!
There is a simple treatment the story overlooked here. Not appending a surname to Robert makes him look like a cardboard photo of no importance. When we give a full name to characters of this magnitude, like Dominic Maxwell in The Bridge, he becomes alive. Giving last name to Robert would have made him alive, and the absence of that makes the patriarch a bit lighter and distant. Moreover, the last names of leads establish a sense of family. This is not of course, a hard and fast rule in screenwriting, but a family like the one Abdul TJ put ahead of his creation must have had one. You can imagine why I brought this up: because it gives credence to the lead.
I am impressed by the way the producers cast their characters. It’s interesting how both mother and son, Davina and Benjamin, have moles on their faces. Akin resemblance. In filming, those are once-in-a-lifetime coincidences, if it was even a coincidence. Oh, talking about splitting in marriage, Shaffy Bellow, in real life, recently split from her husband after twenty-five years of marriage. She must have employed method acting in most of the parts she played in Split. Good movie.