Arinfesesi ( A Day of Misfortune), a film shot in Ibadan in a rural community, Ijaiye in Oyo State premiered over the weekend, and we had to see it to guide our dear readers on what to expect.
The movie is in English but has a Yoruba setting and then the few parts where Yoruba language was spoken, it was subtitled.
Arinfesesi, tells the story of Mabel and Femi (played by Bolaji Ogunmola and Shawn Faqua) a married couple. They are happy, content and larger than life, despite their seeming childlessness. Femi proposes a road trip, a tease of a second honeymoon to the delight of Mabel.
On the trip, in the middle of nowhere, their car broke down which sees them lost and stranded. Meanwhile, not too far away, a dreaded mercenary abetted by Political big guns hunts for a missing diamond.
He soon learns that the diamond was stolen by a certain couple on the run. The hunt leads him to a village, the same village where Femi and Mabel seek help following their ordeal.
Chaos ensues when the deadly assassins and his band of gun-wielding goons attack the village and mistake Femi and Mabel as the fleeing couple who stole the diamond.
The movie features actors like Bolaji Ogunmola Shawn Faqua, Akin Lewis, Oyindamola Sanni, Jaye Kuti, and Akinnayajo Babatunde among others.
Back to the plot of the movie, the scriptwriter should be persuaded to go back to learning his or her craft, because the story wasn’t adding up.
One scene leaves you confused as you hope to get a little bit of clarity from the next scene, it ends up leaving you more confused.
The beginning of the film where the Senator ( Akin Lewis) and his daughters were discussing their extravagant lifestyle was the first big turn-off. Their accents and body language easily portrayed them as amateurs. They both still have a long way to go. Same as the armed men that raided the village.
Mabel and Femi’s Housekeeper was just a No-no! Comic relief gone wrong. There was nothing about him that will make anyone laugh.
There are a couple of other questions we are yet to find answers to…
There was an attack on a whole village over a missing diamond which was said to have left the village with the aid of a visiting couple.
How did the couple get hold of the diamonds? Even the youngest child in the same village was aware the strange couple had the diamonds, but the King wasn’t in the know…. Really?
But who are those couples? They were never shown…Why make Mabel go through all the stress to get pregnant when the trip wasn’t going to end well with all the drama.
After all, is said and done.. what happened to the diamond that took several lives? Who did it end with?
At the cinema hall, barely half of the movie time and people were just walking out in numbers with a loud hiss. Yes, the Arinfesesi was that boring!
For Arinfesesi it’s 2/10! It was just a waste of time and funds.