Guilty Pleasures

By Ali Baylay

Starring: Ramsey Nouah, Magid Michel, Nse Ikpe-Etim, Mercy Johnson, Desmond Elliot,Omoni Oboli; Screenplay: Uyai Ikpe-Etim/Bula Aduwo; DOP: Austine Nwaolie/Issac Martins; Executive Producers: Emem Isong, Desmond Elliot; Editor: Uche-Alex Moore; Producers: Emem Isong, Desmond Elliot; Director: Daniel Ademinokan; Assistant Director: Desmond Elliot. c.2009

Guilty Pleasures is one of the few Nollywood productions that’ll surely go into cinematic history as a classic. To a large extent, it has the makeup and flare of Citizen Kane. Terso in Guilty Pleasures shares the insolence and self-righteousness of Orson Welles in Citizen Kane in his Zanadu mansion.  Just the way Welles idolizes Susan Alexander, so Terso idolizes Liz in Guilty Pleasure and they do so to a fault that causes their happiness to go asunder.

Guilty Pleasures is a narrative of two divorced wives telling how they were each robbed out of their marriages. Each story has a semblance of classic Hollywood: Citizen Kane on one hand and Fatal Attraction on the other. The stories are told interchangeably by the two and the screenwriters Uyai Ikpe-Etim and Bula Aduwo do so cleverly without confusing viewers. In one account the wife throws the husband out, and in the other, the rich husband cannot help but throw the pig back into the sty.

Kinetchi (Rob Loner) is a photographer who on a gig, runs into Boma (Mercy Johnson) and have a one night stand with her and vanishes out of his life at least, for a moment. Later, their path crosses and it is portraits after portrait at the beach and a night at her pad. When Kinetchi too vanishes obviously on a honeymoon with a newlywed, Boma is stressed out and goes into a massage parlor. While there, the newlywed wife Nse (Omoni Oboli) visits and she’s introduced to Boma and found out that Boma is an interior decorator.  She invites Boma to their house for a dinner and sleepover. Boma,  having come to know this lady stole her heart jumps on the invitation. While Kinetchi’s wife sleeps, he tiptoes into Boma’s room more to satisfy an insatiable desire for her than for her to get out of his life. They’re caught having it out in the living room and he lost the marriage.

The other guilty pleasures take place in the household of Terso. He is a wealthy man of good taste who showers his wife with anything beautiful, but his attention. Terso’s attention could not be dissuaded from his business meetings and trips in exchange for the attention to his wife, so when Terso’s wife takes his photographer younger brother Bobby (Magid Michel) from the airport, at first there’s love-hate introductory relationship between them.  Bobby is young and hot, and every young girl’s dream, especially any girl posing for his camera will fall under his spell and warmth, as did his brother’s wife Liz, an old model. She, in turn, has been missing the glare and glamour of showbiz coupled with Bobby’s presence in the house, fills the vacuum created by Terso’s absence from her bedroom. She falls prey to Bobby’s almost psychotic gesture towards her and allows him to deflower the long-buried flame of desire in her. That is how Eve (Liz) left Eden.

One cannot review this movie without looking at the line up of the cast. No one other than Ramsey Nuoah would have played the character of Terso more exactly than himself. He has the persona and the perfect grit for the role. Ramsey has played mostly affluent Nollywood roles to the point that he can be typecast. Most of all, forget the skin tone, the camera loves him. He doesn’t pose he acts and he delivers in Guilty pleasures. Other surprising acts that capture one’s attention are those of Magid Michel and Mercy Johnson. Both roles are either psychotic or bordering on neurotic. You can hear it in their deliveries, in their actions, their peals of laughter and in their behaviors. I think the authors of this remarkable work are portraying artists as loonies.

If there’s a focal attention in Guilty Pleasures, that attention belongs to Ramsey Nouah. Like I said earlier, his acting in this flick is a carbon copy of Orson Welles at both the height of his glory and his downfall-losing his wife. And he acts with such integrity and persona that George Clooney would envy. In the whole movie, he’s neither too aloof in the beginning nor softhearted in the end.

I can bet my bottom dollar on Guilty Pleasures to make your evening grande. The energy that went on to produce this movie is visible on the screen. Thanks to Desmond Elliot and partner for having such a sumptuous production. An engrossing story! Guilty Pleasures is a romantic, nostalgic, and a sentimental presentation, period.