Movie Review: Why ‘Dinner At My Place’ is not your regular comedy romance

You might already know you are expecting a romantic movie when you see Timini Egbuson and Sophie Alakija in a film. What we should look at now is if Dinner At My Place is just that regular film or if it deserves an ovation.

Dinner At My Place is the story of a young orphan (Nonso) who was going to propose to his girlfriend with the $22,000 gold ring his mother left for him. The plan was to propose over dinner at his place, and everything seemed to be going on as planned. His girlfriend arrived at his home, and out of anxiety, he threw the ring inside the stew.

His girlfriend came, and while they were settling to dinner, there was a knock on the door. Nonso opened the door to find his ex-girlfriend, who had come to appeal that she sleeps over that night. Finally, after appeals from Nonso’s girlfriend, he agreed she sleeps on the couch, but then, she went on to eat the food and swallowed something all of them believed was the ring.

Did they ever get the ring back? What extreme action did they have to take in search of the ring?
Truthfully, the story and plot of Dinner At My Place is nice and a definition of a romantic comedy. There is this “Awwn” feeling you will get watching the film, and somehow, none of these took away all the comic scenes in the movie.

It is even more amusing that the film starts with a tragic scene, and you think you are expecting to see another flow of the story.

Then Boom, the writer shocks us with a comedy. Also, when the ex-girlfriend came, one would expect the usual turn out of ex-girlfriend drama and how the protagonist resolves it, but then again, the writer took us out of the norm. Dinner At My Place was a well-thought-out story, which is impressive.

The directing is also as good, and one would tell a lie to say the director didn’t do a good job. However, some flaws in the movie make one question the director’s ability to be attentive to details. For instance, the proposal was meant to be a surprise; Donna wasn’t supposed to know her best friend was in the house, yet, she saw her best friend’s car in the house, and she wasn’t surprised?

Very unrealistic. Also, how did water fill the WC so bad? Regardless, the ability to create reality was top-notch and commendable.

The acting in Dinner At My Place is the spice of the movie as every single actor did a fantastic job handling the role. Seeing the “bad boy” Timini playing the shy, nervous role was sweet to watch. I mean, seeing a different Timini is something worth noting.

Bisola has always been a good actress, and once again, she nailed her role. Uche Montana and Sophia Alakija also did great jobs, and truthfully, there was no bad actor in Dinner At My Place. The synergy and chemistry between the actors also made their roles very believable. They nailed their roles.

The whole production is a good effort, from the choice of music, the costume and make-up, and even the cinematography. Really, despite the avoidable flaws in the movie, Dinner At My Place is a fantastic delivery, and it would get a 9/10