Movie review: Maia film lacks the sparkle to keep you glued

Maia tells the story of a young lady struggling to keep relationships with men due to a curse placed on her in the village. The lady named Maia, played by Cherry Agba, believed she incurred the curse after a child she was tasked to babysit drowned in a river while she went to have sex with her boyfriend as a 17-year-old.

Maia, which began streaming on Prime Video on May 8, was directed by Pever Ben and written by Echobu Michael and Garuba Emil. The movie starred Cherry Agba, Ike Agbai, Preach Bassey, Queendi Dudu, Mofe Duncan, Stephen Ekechi, and Ekemini Jane Essien, amongst others.

Without much ado, I’ll classify this movie as a low-budget film because of so many reasons. First, location scouting was poor as the producers of the film made use of one restaurant for up to five dates Maia got involved in. I can understand that it can be expensive to rent different restaurants for the five scenes, however, creativity could have come into play. What happened to creating a restaurant setting in a corner of a house, even if it would just be a table for two?

The lighting in the movie is really poor and nothing close to cinematic at all. Some scenes failed to maintain shadows, thereby having lights spilling on places they really shouldn’t have any business with. The scene where Uzee Gyan (Mofe Duncan) was holding a conference is an example of poor lighting. I also thought the camera was overexposed as the picture looked harsh, coupled with the white walls of the hall. The movie’s color grading is nothing impressive as we saw too much warmth in the shadows and highlights, creating an unpleasant sight.

Did the actors play their roles well? I don’t think so. I don’t know whether it’s the story that needs to be blamed or the actors, but both couldn’t sync well. I, however, must commend Maia’s assistant in the office. She was the only one that pulled me into her character. Also, the teenage Maia and her boyfriend did well in the river scene where the child drowned.

Is Maia a movie worth seeing? No, and I hate to say that. I watched the movie with the hope that it would end on time so I could move on with my life. I got sucked in by the intro of the movie which involved the child drowning. Sadly, I was spat out immediately as nothing after that scene could hold me down.

Maia can only thrive in the absence of other content to stream. This is because of its weak story. I believe that writers need to know that stories that thrive today are not those that put one and one together to get two but those that put one and one together to get 11. That is what Maia missed. I wonder how I would have felt if I had sat in a cinema hall to see this movie. Maia gets a 3/10.