The movie When Love Happens premiered at the Odeon Cinema
Greenwich on Friday 4th September 2015 and at the same time started showing in
selected cinemas on the same day.
Unfortunately, die to another premiere on the same day to
which babso.org was already committed, we could not attend the premiere. However,
we were priviledged to watch the screening of the movie on Wednesday 9th
September 2015 at Odeon Cinema Greenwich. This review is therefore based on the
screening.
Storyline:
Moduroti
Bankole–Smith (also known as Mo)is a twenty eight year old events planner that
has always been unlucky when it came to getting a partner or finding a future
partner. She is reminded at every turn about how wonderful love his with proof
to substantiate the case. Her parents are madly in love and are always nudging
her to find someone. She has 2 close friends Tseju whose profession is unclear
and Tobe a banker.
Events take a
bizarre turn when she is hired to plan a long time friend’s Jennifer’s upcoming
wedding. This ignites a change and
a chain reaction in Mo. She is now determined to open herself to new ways to
explore dating and finding romance. An old flame Dare returns to town to
further complicate her plans. Unknown to her, her close friend Tobe secretly
harbours affection for her and that starts to reverberate as an undercurrent
that will reach a tipping point one that will either end badly or for the
better. Mo will have to find the natural balance of love as she hopes it to be
or as most people experience it.
To me the storyline was very
relevant. In the African culture or at least in the Nigerian culture, when a
lady attains a certain age and has studied all she can and achieved things in
life, the pressure comes up for her to get married. As in the case in this
movie, matters get worse when every other person around one that grew up
together is married or in a stable relationship. The movie also depicted how
far one can go to get a partner. I would not tell you what was done in this
movie or how far Mo went, you need to watch it yourself.
One thing I enjoyed about the movie
was that from start to finish, the theme of the story was straight forward and
everyone knew where the movie was going. There were no distractions, it was all
about love and getting into a relationship and I commend the writer of the
script for that. That made the storyline very easy to follow and in fact would
make the average viewer emphatise with Mo.
Cast: The movie boasted of loads of experienced
Nollywood actors and included Weruche Opia, OC Ukeje, Beverly Naya, Oreka
Godis, Desmond Elliot, Wale Ojo, Bukky Wright, Gideon Okeke, Bassey Keppy
Ekpeyong, Helen Paul, Shaffy Bello, Blossom Chukwujekwu, KC Ejelonu. The movie was Directed by Seyi Babatope. and Produced by Kene Mkparu,
Moses Babatope, Seyi Babatope.
In my view the
cast were marvelous. I cannot pick on any particular actor opposed to the
other. Even those that played minor roles did well and there was a good
coordination that brought the movie together. Every single actor did what was
expected of them and I commend the Director for a job well done. I don’t know
how long it took to shoot this movie but permit me to use this phrase, the cast
was simply on point every single one of them.
If you know me
when it comes to reviewing movies, I am picky but even though there were tiny
mistakes by the cast in one or two scenes, the average viewer would not have
picked on them so I am willing to let them go. There were definitely no
cramming lines in this movie. To the entire cast and crew, I say well done.
Picture
Quality: I do not have much to say about the picture quality. The picture
quality was of a good standard. However, that said, in some scenes, there were
places where it seems the pictures froze and we did not see the images of the
cast as they were talking. This could have been dealt with in post-production.
There were no blurred pictures.
Sound
Quality: Again the sound quality was of a very good standard. There was no
interference with the sound and everything the cast said were very clear.
However, my only concern and this is being very picky was with Mo. I am not
sure if it had to do with her voice or if she was always a bit far from the
microphones to pick her voice very clearly in some scenes. Every other person
seemed to have a loud articulate voice but the volume always seemed to dip when
it came to Mo. That was just an observation.
Overall
performance: One thing I liked about the
movie was what I call the pause and explain. The film froze on a character and
Mo usually said something about the character. That was done in a professional
manner.
The movie was humorous, was real, was easy to understand, was
universal and anyone could relate with it. I went to the movie with someone who
would not really watch Nollywood movies and she was full of praise for the
movie. To me that spoke a lot about the movie.
Although the UK screening of the movie would be ending today
10th September 2015, this is a movie that should continually be
viewed. It is one of those movies I would like to see on Iroko TV or even
Netflix.
I would like to commend the Director Seyi Babatope, and the entire cast
and crew for a job well done. The question remains if I would recommend this
movie. From my comments above, it is certain what my answer would be. This is
one of those movies as a reviewer and critic, that I would recommend without
any hesitation or fear of being crucified. I had seen what was written about
the movie previously, but I don’t believe a movie is a good movie until I see
it and definitely this was a good movie.
Watch
the trailer:
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