Sidomex Universal, 567 Entertainment, New Black Elite Films, present Okey Uzoeshi (Mike Okafor), Keira (Diane Bassey), Enyinna Nwigwe (Adetunde George Jr.), Kahinde Bankoli (Lola Coker), Deyemi Okanlawon (Richard ‘Richie’ Boyo), Richard Mofe Damijo (Adetunde George Sr.), Iretiola Doyle (Elizabeth A George), Ini Dima Okojie (Jane Ifeoma Odogu), Charles Inojie (Airport Guard). Director/Writer/Producer Jay Franklyn Jituboh; Cinematographer Mohammad Atta Ahmed. © 2016.
By Google’s definition, dinner is a formal meal at a table, preferably in the evening, with family members, friends, and even strangers to have a memorable evening to eat and drink the best of wines, with laughter, brushing off on old memories as guests chew on the meal. The hostess of the evening sits next to the master of the host of the dinner. Dinner as a movie is characteristic of The Visit (2014)–a hybrid of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf (1966). The Visit, as in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf, portrays a conservative, hard-partying couple moving into a neighborhood and being invited over by a similar couple for a drink. Soon, the couples realize their marriages have secrets.
Adetunde George Jr. (Enyinna Nwigwe) invites his childhood friend Mike Okafor (Okey Uzoeshi), his groomsman, to dinner before the impending wedding of Lola Coker (Kahinde Bankoli). Mike brings his intended fiancé, Diana Bassey (Keira). Then comes another invitee, Richard ‘Richie’ Boyo (Deyemi Okanlawon), “a buddy and a major asshole,” as Ade would introduce him to Mike, but who is not particularly welcomed by Lola, the future bride of Ade. Controversy is signaled in the story from the onset of the arrival of guests for this dinner in Ade’s immaculate mansion, a pre-wedding gift from this wealthy father, Adetunde George Sr. (Richard Mofe Damijo).
Mike knelt before he proposed to Jane Ifeoma Odugu (Ini Dima Okojie) but was rebuffed and left on his knees as she walked off. His next attempt at getting married, or even a fiancé, is delicate and uncertain. Being a groomsman to Ade would be a testing ground for him and Diane. When Ade and Lola receive the couple, there’s a promise of fun and joy. Having one elementary school friend over for dinner on the eve of one’s wedding can never be more fun. Brushing off on days gone by, and all that.
At this glorious moment, Richie’s arrival puts a significant pall on the company. The narrative technique should have had a rumbling, non-diegetic sound as an omen. Richard’s arrival spells gloom for the wedding eve dinner. Richard had a one-time fling with Diane and still had her telephone number. Soon after, Richard was introduced to Diane and Mike, and “I think we‘ve met before,” he queried Diane. “No, I don’t think so.” Diane denies it, knowing they have met fully well. Over dinner, Richie places an unknown call to Diane. She suspects Richie but denies it when Mike asks about the caller.
At this point, the writer, Jay Franklyn Jituboh, throws controversy into the drama. The beautiful pre-wedding dinner at Ade’s house will become a wreck for all the characters: Diane and Mike, Lola and Ade, and his “asshole friend,” Richie, and to a point when Ade Sr. (Richard Mofi Damijo), the father and Mother, Adenike (Iretiola Doyle) would come over, and would both be dumb-founded to find their son with a swollen eye, Mike in a bloody tee-shirt, and Richie with bloody t-shirt and swollen eye too. The room has become like it is in the wake of a hurricane. Both Adenike and Ade Sr. are wide-eyed when they enter the parlor. She asks: Adenike, “What happened here, and who’s the young lady driving away in a taxi?”
Junior, “It must be Diane.”
Adenike, “And who is Diane?”
Ade Sr. “Why do you have a black eye?”
Adenike, “Honey, do you have another girlfriend?”
Ade Sr. “Have you been fighting? Where is Lola?”
Adenike, “And for crying out loud, why is Richard asleep in your living room? Adetunde George Junior, you will explain what happened here right now.”
Ade Jr. “I’m calling off the wedding.”
Adenike/Ade Sr. (unison): “What did you say?”
Richard has had affairs with Diane, as she would confess to Lola. Richard had also had a one-night stand with Lola, much more like rape, because he had forced himself on her at a time when she had gone knocking at his door in search of her boyfriend, Ade. When they learned what Richie had done, they not only turned their backs on their fiancés. Ade’s father fires Richie from the company. No one knew that Ade had had an affair with Diane.
Precisely, possibly, and naturally, Richard is the fall guy in the story. Not by his making, however. Jay Franklyn got him so. All the male characters in the story had played rough and tumble hanky-panky lives with girls. And it is natural, like I wrote earlier, that some of us would run into some girls we had played hooky with. “I hope you’re happy with yourself and everything you’ve achieved today in trying to prove a point. Now I see why Lola didn’t want to invite you in the first place. You just always fucked things like you always do. Despite all your fuck ups, I always try to cover for you. I take everything else, but this, this isn’t very good…You can leave my house.”
The simple takeaway from this movie is that the present-day generation must learn to live with one understanding and not only to understand but to accept relationships without regard to the past lives of their partners. In the days gone by, our mothers especially, you hardly ever come across young men and women who ever got deflowered before betrothed. Deflowering a loved one before marriage was an abomination, and deflowering during marriage was a source of great family pride. No, not today; you’ll hardly find one in a million undeflowered women. The other day, I saw a girl receiving a certificate from the locals for not being deflowered at age eighteen.
That brings us to the question Ade Sr. asks his son, “Have you not ever had sex (Ade Sr. turns slightly and looks at his wife) with another woman… So, you called off the wedding because she slept with another man…then you will get into another relationship, marry, then a year or two, some revelation comes along. What do you do? (to his wife), “Adenike, we all make mistakes.” Interestingly, Ade Sr. looks at his wife slightly as he states his warning. It is like your mother, Adenike, and I have been there and done that.
Ade’s father tried to make sense of the love fracas between Ade and Lola, but they couldn’t. A few months passed, Mike and Diane made up and, about to get married, invited Ade to be his best man. Diane secretly invites Lola to the wedding so that Ade and she can make it up. “Love makes us do the most ridiculous thing,” Mike admits.
Mike was disappointed once when Jane Ifeoma Odugu left him on his knees with an engagement ring. He had bet his marital happiness on his relationship with Diane, and seeing everything and how it did wasn’t something he could swallow. He runs after her to the airport. In her whimpering cry, Diane must have felt a jinx in every relationship she has gotten into following her here. Richard is as guilty as everyone in the film; listen to what he says, “How would I have known?”
The essence of this movie is to bring to the present-day generation the marital phenomenon they must cope with. See Richie when he is commanded by his employer, the elder Ade, and told to leave the house and go on to pack his belongings in his office drawer. We see him walk defiantly, without apology, picking up his belongings as he leaves the premises. Most of us, maybe myself, pity the poor man. He doesn’t pity himself, care, or apologize; it is like saying silently to himself, as he looks into the camera, the Biblical dictum, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at (sic) me.”