Originally uploaded by NollywoodForever
Guilty Pleasures ~ 2009
Prooduced by Emem Isong & Desmond Elliot
Story – Emem Isong
Screenplay – Uyai Ikpi Etim
Directors – Daniel Ademinokan, Desmond Elliot
Starring:
Ramsey Noah – Tessa
Mercy Johnson – Boma
Majid Michel – Bobby
Nse Ikpi Etim – Liz
Omoni Oboli – Nse
Desmond Elliot – Mr Okoro
Rukky Sanda – Chidinma
Rob Loner – Kenechi
Paul Frank – Oriafo
Beverly Naya – Bella
Esther Eyibio – Efe
Leena Mourgabel – Janet
Archie Sam – Lucas
Ibiwari Etuk – Tosan
Themes:
Relationship Issues
Love
Infidelity
Betrayal
My Rating – 80%
This is a story about relationships, infidelity, betrayal, love and deceit. The story is told through a conversation at the beginning of the movie between two women in a travel agency. Liz played by Nse-Ikpi Etim feels neglected by her husband. In all their years of marriage she has never spent more than 5 consecutive days with her husband as he is always working and as a result away on business trips. He is also possessive and controlling, not allowing her to take up employment as well as dictating her wardrobe and friends. She has had enough and is driven into the arms of someone who should have been off limits.
Nse played by Omoni Oboli has been married for a mere 3 weeks and already the cracks are showing. When she met her husband he was a struggling photographer and she was the one supporting him. In four years of dating there was never any sign of cheating and then one day not long before their wedding he meets Boma in a bar during a business trip and everything changes. This one affair has devastating consequences.
*************SPOILERS*************
After all the hype I was sooooo excited to see this movie, with the likes of Emem, the great cast and especially after watching the masterpiece that was Reloaded I could only imagine that this just had to be better. WRONG. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t bad or anything, as you can see from the rating, in the grand scheme of things it was a whole lot better than the average Nollywood fare. I guess having read the rave reviews and having watched Reloaded I was expecting this one to top that and for me it just didn’t.
I liked the way the story was told from the end backwards and the way the women’s stories were interwoven back to back, however the story with Nse, Boma and Kenechi was not properly explored or developed. It was as if it were a mere afterthought. It would have been better to either develop the story properly of scrap it totally. I also liked the use of the Facebook status to announce Bobby’s arrival in Nigeria. That was a nice touch.
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Majid was the stand out performance for me. He is on fire as Bobby, Tessa’s brother. There was great sexual chemistry between him and Nse. With a smile that lights up a room he was so positively smouldering that he could create fire with a brick wall. The passion between him and Nse was intense and convincing, definitely more so than with Nse and Ramsey.
One scene that was very powerful for me was the face to face gut wrenching scene at the end of the movie between Liz and Tessa. Nse and Ramsey played their roles in this scene to perfection. Although Ramsey’s character is a heavily flawed individual and to some extent took his wife for granted we can still feel his pain in this scene and equally we can feel Liz’s turmoil in hurting him and ruining the relationship between the two brothers.
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Two things that didn’t add up for me were the choice made for Liz’ friends. We had 3 young girls that were her friends that she would go shopping with. They also came to the house and were swooning over Bobby. These girls looked waaaaaaay younger than Nse. It was just not realistic to me. On one shopping trip it seemed like the clothing and baseball cap put on Nse was in an attempt to youth-ify her and it failed miserably. It only served to add age on her. These girls looked to be between 18 and 24 and Nse looked to be in her mid to late 30′s. It just didn’t add up. We see Nse shopping, no talking, just music for what seems like forever, just unnecessary.
The other thing that didn’t feel real at all to me what Nse as a fashion model. Yes she is pretty. Yes she has a nice figure, but fashion model. No. And the shots taken by Bobby did not look like they would be on the cover of any magazine either. Perhaps it would have been better if we didn’t actually see her modelling and pictures being taken of her, then we would only be able to use our imaginations. Actually seeing the modelling confirmed what we were thinking already – “Nah she doesn’t look like a model.”
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I would recommend this movie. We learn a lesson about consequences for ones actions. It was a slow starter but it got way more engrossing towards the end of the first part. The picture was glossy and seamless. The special effects that were used were integrated well and used to great effect. A great cast was used with the exception with Rukky Sanda (I don’t know what she was doing there.) My only complaints would be that the movie did not feel finished, the undeveloped side story and the long drawn out non dialogue scenes that could have been cut out completely. However, on the whole… THUMBS UP. Nollywood Production Watch Nigerian African Movies Movie Reviews Review Lagos Idumota
[...] to be a stuntwoman, a pilot, I don’t know something different. We saw this model thing in The Movie Guilty Pleasures and that movie had the same problem as this one with regards to believable casting for the model [...]