There have been a lot of media hype surrounding #WivesOnStrike, a movie by Omoni Oboli which came out this year, first, I actually find it hard to go watch a Nigerian movie especially when the hype is a lot. Because most times the hype are made by producers themselves (example Fifty) and most of the time end up boring and a waste of time, popcorn and money. When #WivesOnStrike came out and I saw the cast, truth be told, I wasn’t impressed (in my mind, ‘another one’), it looked like Omoni Oboli gathered her friends and said ‘Oya o, lerrus do a movie and make noise about it’. If you would remember, they even almost started a social media brouhaha with Chioma Akpotha saying something about ‘sisters not always sisters’ or something like that, before they announced their movie. I think that was what actually put me off.
Anyways, last Saturday, I and a friend dragged ourselves to the Cinema, to watch anything they had, #WivesOnStrike was on the menu, so why not???
The first scene was that of Papa Ngozi (Kenneth Okonkwo) and Mama Ngozi (Omoni Oboli) doing what they should be doing, lol. Okay funny scene, I kept on using one side eye to watch, waiting for the moment, my brain would tell me ‘I told you so, you should have bought Sharwama instead’, but it didn’t come, it was actually getting funnier by the moment, especially when Julius Agwu appeared on scene, and warned Papa Ngozi to warn his wife, saying
I want to ‘jangilova, I must to ‘jangilova’
Putting aside the comedic aspect of the movie, it actually had some very serious messages that tally with our present economy, with the whole child bride storyline and women being empowered and not pushed to the back ground. I also liked the ‘women supporting women’ theme, that message was passed along neatly.
Somewhere in the middle of the film, however, it gets tiring, like the story lacked continuity and I couldn’t help but ask myself, ‘okay, ezdaall’. There’s the incessant back-and-forth between the Senator, Aniete (Kalu Ikeagwu) and his wife (Chioma Akpotha) that almost gets you rolling your eyes. Their part of the movie was the most boring aspect, like really!!! Also that their pose again got me cringing, because it was so unreal.
Another thing I noticed was the casting was a bit quite poor, Udoka Oyeka and Ufuoma McDermott (Papa and Mama Amina) were terrible at their roles, even though they tried. For crying out loud, they are acting the part of a ‘Poor Hausa parents’, their accents were off. Don’t we have Hausa actors in this country? Chioma Akpotha would have played the Mama Amina role far better than Ufuoma. Then the extra man with the white cap, or the other lady that likes to tag along with Omoni, Uche and Kehinde, like seriously??? *eyesrolling*
At the end of the day, I actually enjoyed myself and I would rate it a 7/10, kudos to Julius Agwu and Uche Jombo for carrying the movie. You should watch it, if you haven’t seen it.
Watch the trailer below
Libs Of ORC
