Garden of Love and Tears
Tonto Dikeh, Ramsey Noah, Patience Ozokwor, Seun Akindele, David Mckenzie, Kofi Adjorlolo, Daniella Chioma, Anita Joseph
Jennny (Tonto Dikeh) a psychologist, is happily married to Micheal(Ramsay Noah) with two wonderful kids. She counsels marriage crisis, now she has own to deal with, let's see how she manages it.
The movie Garden of Love and Tears is divided into four parts. The sequel is called Final Garden of Love and Tears: "Garden of Love and Tears 1 & 2" and "Final Garden of Love and Tears 1 & 2".
Nonso Emekaekwue
Richmond Ezihe
2009
-Story: [2 out of 5] Setting aside the discrepancies, this is really a great movie that teaches a moral (something most African movies nowadays have forgotten about). A movie one can watch with the family and learn something from. Having said that, let me move on to the more annoying aspects aka corniness (Definition: The state or condition of being trite, banal or mawkishly sentimental). If the term corniness doesn’t sit well with you then let me try a few synonyms for this movie: cheesy, melodramatic, stereotyped…. UNREAL! Which is the word I’d use to describe the first part of the movie. Filled with so many unreal scenarios, it’s crazy. All the love in the family is…. too much love! No family professes their love for each other on the dining table each night… heck, how many families even eat all together on the dining table anymore? And… why was Ramsey Noah spoon feeding his best friends fiance? In which world is that done? And on the first day of meeting her? Oh puh…lease, roll me over in flour and call me cake cos I’m not consuming this bull crappish scenario. To state it simply, most of the conflicts were so unreal to me that it was hard to take the drama seriously.
-Originality: [3 out of 5] It actually is quite original in that it is the only movie I’ve seen so far that focuses intently on the woes of over suspicion. Yes, indeed there are a million and one movies about suspicious spouses, however, they add that storyline in the mix of some other drama like mother-in-law pressure, or societal gossips.
-Predictability: [1 out of 5] A happy ending was expected!
-Directing/Editing: [1 out of 5] Two main problems: 1) Length 2) Tonto Dikeh. First of all, this movie needed not have been that long… I mean four parts? Really? They could have gotten to the point in 2 parts. All 4 and a half hours were not extremely necessary because it felt mostly like a circle of failure. Same motif displayed over and over again from scene to scene even though we all knew how it was going to end (and someone please tell me how that blind man in the forest/jungle/bushes scene was necessary at all?). And my second complaint is with Tonto’s character. She plays a psychologist but in reality, nothing she does in this movie as a psychologist is actually in the line of duty of a psychologist. I feel like the writer should have done more research into the job description of a psychologist instead of given her the lines she was given. Any mother of a depressed daughter could have done better psychological work than she did. Then there are the scenes where you can hear the directors voice from the background giving instructions to the actors! Wow
-Acting quality: [2 out of 5] Stand out performances were definitely Patience Ozokwor and Kofi Adjorlolo. As the movie drags along and the audience gets bored with Tonto’s inability to enunciate the words properly and Ramsey’s unnecessary yet ever present fake American accent, Patience and Kofi become all that there is to look forward to. The next standout character in my opinion was definitely Tonto and Ramsey’s son. I missed his name but he is definitely an amazing child actor… his sister? Not so much. Tonto and Ramsey had amazing chemistry in this movie…. Seun Akindele! Oh dear Seun, to state it simply, between this movie and “Two can play“, my brother has definitely come a long way in acting. He has found his place or should I say comfort zone and is a less cliched kind of actor. Extras suck
-Setting: [3 out of 5] Adequate! Not mindblowing
-Costume/Make-Up: [3 out of 5] I absolutely adored Tonto’s married woman outfits. Proof to the Nigerian movie costumier that just because a woman is married does not mean that all she can wear is iro and buba. Asides from that, costumes were good.
-Props and Graphics: [3 out of 5] On Point
-Video Quality: [3 out of 5] Ok
-Audio Quality [0 out of 5] From lip movement to volume controls, there are way too many problems with the audio for this movie
-Soundtrack: [3 out of 5] I loved the soundtrack for this movie, all except the singer’s H-factor
-Musical Score: [3 out of 5] Nicely done
Head Over Bills
Azonto Classics
You are right dear, d movie was so long, will still have to finish part 4 some other time…
I like the fact that this movie teaches a morale
To be honest, that is why I find myself watching more Yoruba movies nowadays. Most have a morale at the end of the movie ….unlike most of the English ones
xxxx
Oh my darling, NIL! You have been missing from blogosphere for the longest time!!! Good to have you back
…and yes, I agree with you about the morale thing. At least Yoruba movies have a reason to be made, I feel like most of these folks nowadays in English movies just feel like since they have a camera, they must make a ‘movie’