Have you ever watched a movie that had you satisfied and smiling at the end? A 2hours long movie to be precise that had you feeling high and happy just because you it was worth the long time spent on it?
Well that was how i felt when I watched The Visit during the week, oh my, awesome movie!
The Visit is a 2015 Nigerian romantic comedy thriller film directed by Olufunke Fayoyin and produced by Biodun Stephens. The film, which is a four cast movie, stars an ensemble of Nse Ikpe Etim, Femi Jacobs, Blossom Chukwujekwu and Bayray McNwizu.
The film focuses on the life of two couples with
different lifestyles living in the same apartment block and how they
handle conflict when their parallel lifestyles at a point colluded.
Whereas
Eugenia (Bhaira McWizu) and Chidi (Femi Jacobs) are prim and proper,
their neighbours with whom they share a building, Ajiri (Nse Ikpe-Etim)
and Lanre (Blossom Chukwujekwu) are carefree and rough. An incident
prompts the latter couple to visit the former and the masks of nobility,
respectability and affectation, which envelop these couples, come off
totally.
Chukwujekwu
wears the character of Lanre Shagaya (Lord Shagwell) like a prized
birthday garment in what is arguably his most brilliant performance yet;
his looks are well-crafted for this role. In this film, he is almost completely unrecognizable as an igbo-smoking-sex-loving ‘Jide’ to Nse’s ‘Ajiri’. Femi Jacobs is competent as
the slimy Chidi while his wife, Eugenia cannot be beaten by anyone, real
or imagined, in the ‘faking’ game. McWizu’s performance is at par with
her portrayal of Cindy in her Amstel Malta Box Office (AMBO)-winning
movie, Cindy’s Notes. Of course, Ikpe-Etim does not disappoint.
The movie was directed byFunke Fayoyin and produced by Biodun Stephen.
The
screenwriters are acknowledged for creating expectations and taking the
story to a different direction, each time. For instance, when Lanre
calls Ajiri a bitch and she responds by asking him, ‘Is it is not losers
that marry bitches?, one thought domestic abuse will follow, but the
story goes another way. In fact, whenever Lanre steps up to his wife in
anger, it appears a showdown is underway. The deployment of witty
dialogue and innumerable subtexts do not go unnoticed. Even the sexual
innuendo in the name Shagaya – Shagwell – is apt.
It was funny, engaging, entertaining and more!
The lightning, musical background, cast, acting were all on point….the chemistry between the casts was perfect too!
The Visit,
kept me glued to my seat for
more than two hours and the best part is that it is just a four-man cast.
These four talented actors held us spellbound from the beginning of the
film till the very end and had us shrieking with laughter and shouting
for more. The fact that it was set in one location did nothing to deter
us. Rather, like an onion, the characters of the couples were peeled
away, revealing the layers of pretense they had been putting up for each
other, after so many years of marriage. Another name for the film
should be ‘Who Did I Really Get Married To?‘
The Visit’s
shortcoming is that it is built on, at least, two faulty premises. One,
the contact between the two couples is triggered by the unruly
behaviour of the Shagayas, which becomes intolerable when the glass
window is shattered. Two, Ajiri and Eugenia are said to have grown up in
Warri and Sapele (two neighbouring towns in Delta State) respectively.
For
the former, an upwardly mobile couple like Eugenia (a popular,
full-time blogger) and Chidi, an IT Professional who consults for
Google, would have thinned out the smell of marijuana plus the noise
from their neighbours by constantly turning on their air conditioners,
which are seen one of the days Ajiri and Lanre run round the house. Yet,
there could have been explanations as to why their windows are open.
‘The Visit’ is a four cast movie and it is the story of two couples living together They live in Nigeria where electricity is still a luxury. It could have
been that their generator is faulty and the regular repairer has not
come to fix it. Eugenia’s condescending attitude is enough to keep the
generator repairer away for days; then maybe the couple do not like too
many hands touching their machines and appliances. Additionally, since
everything is on schedule for Eugenia, maybe the windows have to be open
every Saturday to let in fresh air, but locked on other days.
On
the second faulty premise, the Warri variant of the Pidgin English is
unmistakable, contradicting Ajiri’s claim that she was raised in Warri
and lived there for 18 years. Above all, she could not pronounce her
name appropriately, the Warri way.
The
fact that Ajiri is from Warri should have come from her accent, she did
not have to say so herself because dialogue could also show action in
film. However, the director fails to execute this properly. Even when
Eugenia speaks Pidgin English, the “Waffi” accent is not very discern-able. Eugenia could not even properly pronounce Sapele the second
time. Still, the producers could have made two ladies come from any
part of the country.
In all, this movie is pure awesome!
You can watch the trailer (HERE) and watch the full movie on IROKO TV.