The Nollywood Forever Movie Review Blog

Reloaded

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Reloaded ~ 2009
Story – Emem Isong
Screenplay – Emem Isong, Bola Aduwo, Nse-Ikpe Etim
Directors – Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen, Ikechukwu Onyeka

Starring:
Ramsey Noah – Femi
Desmond Elliot – Osita
Rita Dominic – Chelsea
Stephanie Okereke – Weyinmi
Ini Edo – Tayo
Van Vicker – Bube
Uche Jombo – Tracy
Nse-Ikpe Etim – Omoze
Mona Lisa Chinda – Abbey
Enyinna Nwigwe – Edwin
Mbong Amata (nee Odungide) – Nira
Temisan Isioma Etsede – Otis
Emeka Duru – Gabriel
Princess Anazodo – Bube’s Mum
Ahmed Aitity – Shola
Martha Iwoo – Ifeyinwa
Ikechukwu Onyeka – Doctor

Themes Explored:
Revenge
Karma
Desperation
Betrayal
Infidelity
Family Pressure
Societal Pressure
Abortion

My Rating: 93%

Bube and Weyinmi played by Van and Stephanie have been together for seven years and are living together as an unmarried couple. Weyinmi wants to get married and she thinks that Bube does too, but every time the marriage issue comes up he postpones their plans, claiming that it is not the right time. Will he ever marry her?

Femi and Omoze are married but Femi has a wandering eye and cannot seem to remain faithful. Omoze is relentless is trying to keep her man to herself. Will he ever be faithful to her?

Tayo is a battered wife. Amongst her friends she is constantly making excuses for her husband Osita. He, however seems to take great joy in humiliating and beating his wife. Can he change his ways?

Rita plays Chelsea the replacement presenter for a TV Talk Show, and in turn the narrator for the movie which is based around an episode in the talk show about different women’s relationships and the games men play in them. Her relationship appears to be the only one without issues, but is it really what it appears to be on the surface?

*************SPOILERS*************

Tayo knows that her husband Osita is jealous and possessive. One day she dresses up in a skimpy outfit and comes to parade it for her husband. Despite seeing the look of disapproval on his face, she twirls around and asks him,

“How do I look?”

If I knew Tayo in real life I would wonder why you are twirling around with half your nyash out in front of a man that has beat the living daylight out of you for lesser offences. She knows the drill, yet every time she is abused she seems surprised. In response to her twirling he replies,

“Loose as usual. You look like a very cheap whore.”

Tayo looks shocked and upset by his words. Upset I can understand, shocked No.

We see how Tayo has ended up in her marriage as a result of family pressure. She tells her friend,

“To think when I was a single girl. All my parents could think about was marriage… Now look at me I am a punching bag.”

Her statement is candid and makes you think about the importance of not bowing down to societal/ familial pressure against your own desires. After all only we live our own lives. We see Tayo’s sorry state. She is married and unhappy. Her self esteem has been seriously knocked and her husband will not let her take on a job which means she has no financial independence.

Ini Edo does a great job as Tayo. There is a scene where she tries to break up with Osita. She conveys the emotion of a heartbroken woman who has reached breaking point well. Her tears feel real, and the scene is only slightly marred by the over the top sound effects of Osita beating her.
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Ramsey Noah plays Femi a smooth Lover Boy. Not only is he smooth but his character is very funny and shameless too. After he is caught cheating, instead of being apologetic he tells his wife, Omoze,

“You go around running like a mad dog. You could win an award for being the best nag and tout… Sorry? What for?”

Omoze is busy chasing off some of the many women that he is philandering with, going as far as to kidnap one woman and to take her back to their home and beat her. Her anger seems misplaced to me. Was it the woman that vowed to be loyal to you? Or was it your roving husband? Why is she more vengeful to the woman? Why do some women do this?

After Femi loses his job because of Omoze turning up at his work and causing a ruckus, by beating up his boss, suspecting her of being a girlfriend, he threatens to leave her. Omoze refuses that as even being an option, vowing to protect her marriage with her blood.

Nse Ikpe is an intense actress. You will believe that she loves this man with every drop of her blood. She does desperate and exasperated very very well. Even during the comic scenes she does not falter.
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Weyinmi is pregnant, and after being in the relationship with Bube for 7 years on announcing her pregnancy is told by Bube,

“It’s unfortunate the time is not right for me… We have to do the right thing.”

The right thing for Bube means an abortion. Weyinmi has already had 5 abortions and does not want to have another, but feeling that she has no alternative she appeases bube by going ahead with a 6th abortion. The question has to be asked, what man is going to respect want to marry a woman that can be persuaded by a man to abort 6 times against her will? This is the same kind of woman that will let her children be abused by a man or adopt out her children on a man’s say so.

Everybody has different breaking points and Weyinmi reaches hers when Bube gets another woman pregnant and plans on marrying her. It is at the end of part one when she finds the hidden wedding invited in their room that she crumbles and realises that her whole life with Bube has been a lie.

Family pressure comes into yet another situation in that Bube’s mother tells Omoze that he must marry this girl as he cannot jeopardise their long standing family relationship with the girl’s parents.

We also see that a man will stay with the “wrong” woman indefinitely without the commitment of marriage. He will string her along, but at the same time will marry the “right” woman on a whim. Bube is ready to accept the other girl’s pregnancy but threatened Omoze that if she kept the baby he would have nothing to do with them both. Uselessness.
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In the end the women get revenge for all the games their men have played with them. Weyinmi orchestrates the kidnapping of Bube on the day of his wedding to the other woman. She takes him to a warehouse, taunts him and threatens to cut off his manhood. Femi loses not only his job but his house too when Omoze somehow transfers the deeds to the house into solely her name effectively making him homeless.

The way that Tayo’s story ends has the best twist in the entire movie. I did not see it coming at all… completely unpredictable. Osita begins an affair with a pretty young thang. His behaviour towards his wife becomes even more disgisting as he flaunts his mistress in public, not caring whether his wife is around or not. The PYT seduces him in his office, stripping him and then leaving him in the bathroom, telling him that she is going to fetch condoms.

His bosses find him in the buff and he is disgraced in front of the whole committee. He is sacked and goes home from worked distressed and angered. His anger is only to be exacerbated when he finds out that the PYT called Nira is in fact his wife’s cousin. This is my most favourite scene in the movie. Tayo regains her power and when Osita makes the move to attack her; for once she fights back. Tayo and Nira give him a good beating. It is a triumphant moment.

Chelsea’s relationship with Edwin has been consistent throughout the movie. He is heralded as the perfect man. He is handsome, romantic, thoughtful, caring and the couple appear to be happy. In the end we see Rita catching him in bed with Steven (the white guy from Osita’s office). When caught by Chelsea tells her, “This isn’t what it seems.” But seriously what else can it be? Dude is having homosexual relationships. It just goes to show that you never know what lies beneath the façade of perfection. The guy that appeared to be the most virtuous gave us the biggest shock in terms of behaviour.
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I love this movie… However there must always be criticisms (well most times anyway). I feel that putting in the random white guy, Steven was a mistake. He cannot act to save his life, so why was he there? He was very wooden and unconvincing, and made me cringe. I also felt that the movie would have benefitted from perhaps erasing the narrator. The whole talk show storyline was not needed. Uche was unnecessary and didn’t fit the role of a talk show host. Mona Lisa’s two second appearance as the original talk show host approving the new talk show host was pointless too. Maybe she didn’t want to be in the film but just wanted her face on screen momentarily, or perhaps she was originally involved more but those scenes were done away with. Who knows?

The end scenes based in the TV studios were a disappointment and anticlimax. Although the individual stories were wrapped up neatly in terms of letting the viewer know how each woman was doing after the break ups, the execution was messy. We had all the women come onto the TV show and give their story. This was a bit boring and slow. The same stories could have been told in a fraction of the time.

Overall it was a stellar effort from all those involved (bar the Steve character). It was paced well, gripping and on the whole wonderfully executed. The scenes flow well and it ends satisfactorily, in terms of there are no gaping holes and unanswered questions as is so often the case. You feel satisfied as the viewer, and even though the dancing at the end was kind of weird and didn’t necessarily fit in, you feel so good after watching this movie that you want to go and find a pink suit and join in the dancing too!