If You Were Mine

Director- Pascal Amanfo

Producers- Maame Adjoa

Writer- Maame Adjoa

Cast- Majid Michel,  Rukky Sanda, Roselyn Ngissah, Kweku Elliot 

Time- 1:43:42

Year- 2015

Genre- Romantic comedy 

Synopsis

"Max meets a mysterious lady in a nightclub, next thing he knows this woman is in his house and on his bed. The next time he bumps into her, Ashanti the mysterious lady has already stolen every fiber of space in his heart. Things move so fast that by the time he realizes, he’s already proposed. 

Written and directed by Pascal Amanfo, If You Were Mine is another Ghanian production that is in dire need of an engaging plot, a proper script and deep characters even if it’s just a comedy.

Starring the likes of Majid Michel, Rukky Sanda, Kweku Elliott, Roselyn Ngissah, Maame Adjoa Adom Obimpeh, Salma Mumin and Pascal Amanfo, the movie lacks in storyline what most Ghanian movies miss, a plot that will seemingly engross its audience and lines that would crack you up in a good way. As the synopsis mentions, Max runs into a lady he meets in the club and then takes her home. While this is not in any way new or different, I believe looping the scenes that follow together and tying it properly at the end was what was totally absent, annoying and a pure waste of an hour plus of my time as it was badly executed.

Majid is not one to shy away from roles, Nigerian talk less of Ghannian, but there is something about Majid, (I have said this severally), that remains the same with all his characters.  He's lines were great for this production, he had more compose than other characters, however, he always seems similar with his delivery. At a point in most of his movies, his voice will be high-pitched; his eyes and mouth will be open at the same time with his veins almost popping out of his neck all this with little or no theatrical edge to his character.

Rukky Sanda as Ashanti, was just okay. Some chemistry seemed to flow between the two characters, which is every director's dream and also felt natural cause the movie was a thin line between drama and some sort of comedy. However, Rukky didn’t bring anything outstanding to this character and it felt like anyone else would have achieved just the same thing.  

Her group of friends, made up of Roselyn Ngissah, Maame Adjoa Adom Obimpeh and Salma Mumin brought the much-desired comedy to an already dire situation and while this was a development the production honestly needed, I cannot say with an open conscience that it was well executed.

Scripting in a normal stance follows some sort of order, giving a format and consistency expected by all participants apparently, that wasn't the case for this movie, throwing in the dream aspect felt brilliant, but it fell heavily on its face as it didn't connect or add anything to the movie. Directing and Production seemed to be on lock down as I searched sunglasses to see if I would catch a reflection of a camera man or a microphone and got nothing, so while we have moved past that solid gaff in the industry, editing needs to be taken up a notch as the unnecessary scenes came a dime a dozen.

If You Were Mine is one of the many films directed by Pascal Amanfo and one would have thought, since he has several movies to his credit, he would have gotten a proper handle of movie making by now! If You Were Mine earns a 2/10 from Xplore.

Have you seen 'If You Were Mine', share your thoughts in the comments section. 

Movie Review: One Last Word

Director- Desmond Elliot

Producer- Desmond Elliot

Writer- Kehinde Odukoya,

Cast- Majid Michel, Eucharia Anunobi, Uti Nwachukwu, Abiola Segun Williams, Uru Eke

Time- 1:53:20

Year- 2014

Genre- Drama

Synopsis: “One Last Word” tells the story of a movie director torn between the three most important things to him in the world; his career, his self-absorbed fiancé and his over -protective mother.

"It is my job to fool people and not people fool me"

As a Senator, can I just say that I believe Nollywood will be missing a great piece in the person of Desmond and I soooo praise the Lord for his exit! (I kid, I kid, that’s if he doesn’t combine both roles)

“One Last Word” is the second Desmond Elliot production were a character is a director and trust me it isn’t impressive and when that character is Majid, my eyes do a 360 in its sockets. Majid strikes me as a character that is ever ready to work with various directors and he must have a good work ethic, but I have one word for him, acting classes (that’s 2 words actually!) and these classes will help you portray your characters, differently from the usual. And your usual is high pitched screams, I am hard cause I have a cigarette in my mouth and I got played, so I am vulnerable.

If felt different to see Eucharia in this production and I kind of appreciated it. It reminded me of her ‘Glamour Girl’ days, and she deserves some credit. While Abiola Segun Williams speaks with that impeccable accent of hers, she is slowly beginning to sound annoying and doesn’t really have to be in roles that don’t challenge or add anything to her acting profile.

Uru Eke, the self-centered fiancée had me in awe! What is going on Uru? Some roles can actually be turned down, favor or not! The hoity-toity act felt so over-played that there were scenes her pronunciation weren’t clear.  For Uti, who played the role of Chief Medical Director, OMG, what were they thinking? Uti felt so out of place and not in the doctor element at all. He also does himself a disservice with his dreads and even if he was playing it up to look like a funky doctor, his mannerism just stood out. He needs to embrace his roles and go all out, as he didn’t do justice to this! I would really like to know what he does to get into character.

As it relates to cinematography and lighting, this aspect seemed to be handled properly, clear scenes, sound quality, okay. The script didn't feel like much was put into it or its plot, a dying mother, just wanting to be surrounded by her son, change to wife material search, the shallow twist at the end felt too melodramatic to be real. Before I forget, whose idea was it to color or should I say add powder to Majid’s hair and not dye it? Would that be costume or make-up?

One Last Word, felt like a movie horribly put together by Desmond’s production studio before swearing in and earns a disappointing 3/10 from explore.

Have you seen One Last Word? Let me know what you think in the comments section.