Torn

The first time I heard about Torn was in a TV interview with Tinsels Ireti Doyle who played one of the principal character in the film. She spoke so glowingly about the movie, of how it was different from the norm and would be a delight for Cinema goers. That was enough to ignite the desire to see the movie.

A day after its premiere, the movie hits Cinemas and I was amongst its first set of audience paying to watch it. I had expected to see a large turnout given that a considerable publicity had been done online – some of which I came across – but the reverse was the case. The first thought that crept through my mind was that its premiere may either not have made any serious impact to generate word of mouth or that the cinema I attended wasn’t a favorite for most moviegoers.

Well, I refused to allow anything or anyone dissuade me from enjoying a movie I had already paid for, while I prayed silently that I should really enjoy the movie.

So the movie began, behind schedule, about two best friends Ovu (Ireti Doyle) and Nana (Monalisa Chinda) who believe they are married to the same man, Olumide (Joseph Benjamin). It seems one of them is lying, or possibly suffering from a mental breakdown. A top psychologist, played by Bimbo Manuel, who knows his onions, is invited to help unravel the mystery and the truth in no time comes to the fore.

I love dramatic openings, and I think this movie set about to achieve just that but its execution appeared to me like the director was taking lessons from an old Nollywood classic. The beginning didn’t thrill me like I’d expected in terms of the shot composition and location choice, and I was beginning to loose interest.

However, I continued and my persistence paid off as the next scene compensated duly for the previous. It was the scene at the interrogation room where Ireti Doyle’s character was being questioned. I totally loved what I saw. The composition of this scene looked like it had been carefully planned. The cinematic lighting, camera position and movement, and the concept of location looked so beautiful. At that instant I had concluded that it should have been used as the opening scene, but I reasoned that the opening scene where Ireti made an attempt on Monalisa’s life in a Shopping Mall may be pivotal to the telling of the story. So, I sat through the movie.

In fairness, it wasn’t a bad movie but not extremely fantastic. I expected the plot to be fast paced considering its genre, psychological thriller, but for some reasons best known to the director it dragged in some parts. May be if there was a strong sub-plot aiding the main-plot, the excitement would have been more.

The actors did their best to keep the tempo up with their delivery but it was nothing extraordinary. Monalisa was her usual self that I have seen in countless flicks which she has starred in, and Ireti Doyle seemed like she was mirroring her character from Tinsel, only she had to go gaga in some scenes. In comparison, she carried the role like an older sister to Monalisa than actually playing her best friend. When she played the romantic scenes with Joseph Benjamin I sensed she wasn’t free with him, and he with her, as she appeared almost rigid in letting him touch her. They weren’t lovers, period.

I have seen Benjamin give a good account of himself in movies like ‘Mr and Mrs’ and ‘Tango With Me’, but I couldn’t rate this performance on the same level with those. Notwithstanding, I enjoyed watching Bimbo in every scene he appeared in, he was into character and the character was into him, he was a delight on screen with his interpretation. Julius Agwu’s comedy performance as Benjamin’s fake uncle did little to ignite the fire in the storyline which I found monotonous. I prefer him as a stand-up act than as an actor. The actors that played the younger version of Monalisa and Benjamin’s characters deserve a pat for a job well done as newbies. The actor that played the younger Ovu would have been better had her expressions been spot on and I couldn’t marry her timid interpretation with Ireti’s confident portrayal in adulthood, and I waited to see if it was part of the plot but discovered otherwise. Apart from the acting, there were scenes that the audio was lost and we couldn’t hear what the actors were saying. I don’t know if this was due to a technical fault on the part of the cinema where it was screened or some defect the director may have passed on as something little the audience will not take note of. If the fault was the cinema’s I suggest this anomaly be discussed with them and avoided in future screenings, and if it’s the directors then an ADR would have corrected this little error that didn’t go unnoticed.

In all, the movie truly is a departure from the norm of storytelling used to in Nollywood or ‘Old Nollywood’, if you may, but it would have been a greater offering if like a killer-dish it had been allowed to cook well on the fire.