Movie review: The Griot’s ending destroyed its beautiful storyline

A new Nigerian movie, The Griot, has just arrived on Netflix, and trust Kemi Filani to tell you if it’s worth your time or not.

The Griot, which ran for about 110minutes, was directed by Adeoluwa Owu, written by Temilolu Fosudo and Dapo Lanre-Badmus, and produced by Adeoluwa Owu and Goodness Emmanuel.

The movie’s cast includes Abimbola Adebajo, Lateef Adedimeji, Yewande Adekoya, Funso Adeolu, Kunle Afod, Opeyemi Dada, Imoh Eboh, Rita Edward, Goodness Emmanuel, Temilolu Fosudo, Oladapo Gbadimosi, Caroline Igben, Sharon Jatto, Abiodun Kassim, and Toyin Oshinaike.

The Griot revolves around a storyteller with secrets, finding true love, friendship, and betrayal; an almost predictable but well-executed storyline that was watered down by its ending.  It starts out as a love story and abruptly switches to a tragedy at the end.

The last few minutes of the movie were totally irrelevant and added no value to the beautiful storyline. We don’t understand why the writers and producers decided to ruin the simple, beautiful story with the violent last scene.

Also, the whole fulcrum of the movie is to see Lakunle evolve from an imaginative but timid storyteller to someone with enough confidence with the help of Tiwa. However, when it is time to showcase his transformation, the movie robs us of this scene, leaving us dissatisfied.

Anyway, one thing that stood out is the fact that despite the fact that the Griot was produced and directed by newbies, the movie was relatable and enjoyable (till its last two scenes, of course) Even its unfamiliar faces cast thoroughly did justice to their characters.

We also loved how the movie location, set design, cinematography, soundtracks, plots, dialogues, and costumes. The Yoruba culture, through the traditional songs and dances, was beautifully portrayed in a literary effortless way; yes, effortless because it can be akin to a secondary school movie project.

We conclude by saying the Griot is one of the smoothest films we have watched in recent times, with wonderful acting with lots of freshness (not the same old faces we are used to seeing), however, we wished it didn’t end the way it did, hence a 7/10 from Kemi Filani.