Married But Living Single

You can now watch the movie “Married but living single” online at http://muvi.es/w4087/19948

I’ve always said that I go into most movies nowadays with little to no expectations, but even at that there is still that base expectation, for cinema releases at least, that the movie would offer a higher standard than your average made-in-Asaba production. And when I say, a higher standard, I don’t mean just better camera and a celebrity cast, I mean do the right things with the camera and let the cast at least be able to act.

The movie Married but Living Single, explores the theme of a working married woman in an African society. And not just your average working woman, the workaholic who places work and career over her family and children. There is also an unnecessary subplot of a wife beater and… well, that’s about it. I’m not against the idea of bringing up valid social issues in Nollywood movies, I just think if you are already bringing one up, then your movie should focus on that and not add unnecessary distractions. Looking back on it, I cannot one tangible thing that the subplot added to the movie. Instead it prolonged an already tedious film with extra scenes of incapable actors rushing through hurried dialogues.

The movie seemed very similar to “Mr and Mrs” with both starring Joseph Benjamin as the male lead, both exploring storylines that affect the family front, both having completely unnecessary subplots and both having an array of weak actors. The only thing is that this movie didn’t have Nse, so there really is no force holding you till the end of the film (except the fact that you just paid $5 for this, and if you’re anything like me that money must not go to waste).

In the lead roles MBLS has Joseph Benjamin and Funke Akindele. The supporting cast is made up of actors like Kiki Omeili, Joke Silva and Femi Brainard. In my opinion, the supporting cast was much stronger than the lead. Joseph Benjamin is still, in my opinion, ‘mastering his craft’, he doesn’t bring any new energy to the screen and for the most part appears to be going through the motions. Funke, however, is a great actress as we all know but in this movie I was seeing her do all the right things for her character but there was a level of emotion missing from her performance.

I really do have to query whoever was responsible for Aunty Joke’s makeup because she looked like she was channeling her inner Baba Suwe meets Segun Arinze, with all that black. The costume, the make-up, the hair are completely unbefitting for a lady of her calibre (and I’m talking about the character she played).

I will give props for the story, it had a message it was trying to get across. It was just overly predictable and didn’t have anything solid to hold an audience captivated for an hour and fifty five minutes.