Letters to a Stranger

-Originality: [5 out of 5] No! I can honestly say I have not seen this story line before. It is not half as corny or cheesy as your typical Nigerian movie. It is able to express a typical girl’s dreams without making it seem like it fell out of a Disney Classic. Its prize is its realism. 

-Predictability: [5 out of 5] Again, No! I did not see the end coming. Everytime I watch the movie over, I keep hoping that somehow, the end will change up and just once, I’ll get the ending that I really want to have.

-Directing/Editing: [4 out of 5] Fred Amata did an outstanding job with this movie and ofcourse there are some outstanding discrepancies in this movie that whilst watching the viewer does not notice because he/she is all caught up in the romance and beauty of the entire situation that we miss the minor details. For instance, *SPOILER*, Fred’s mum dies and he is trying to contact Genny in Lagos (as she is no longer picking up his calls), so he goes to Genny’s boss, Eucharia, to ask for her address (which he supposedly does not know) meanwhile, a couple scenes ago, it shows that Fred had sent Genny a million and one packages/gifts to make up for forgetting her birthday! Ofcourse, the discrepancies can be overlooked with clever excuses like he had gotten the address from his mother who is now dead hence leaving him stranded. All I’m saying is that being a little clearer from the start saves us all the confusion and guessing.

-Acting quality: [4 out of 5] This is a Genevieve Nnaji movie but forgive me, I honestly think that Elvina Ibru was the stand out performance in this movie (then again, the comic relief is more often than not the stand out performance to most audiences). Her character was exhillarating and she carried the role effortlessly. Speaking of effortlessness… two words: Yemi Blaq (OMG!). This guy’s grammar eh! I remember the scene where he was toasting Genevieve and Genny was steady sitting beside him unable to utter a word (you can tell that she was just melting), even me sef was melting all over the place and then the guy transformed from proper queen’s grammar to konk pidgin… whoa! It took the Lord’s grace that my feet did not fail me. Tell me where they sell men like Yemi Blaq’s character abeg, cos I want me one. Loved the guest appearances mainly because they saved me the annoyance of incapable extras. Genevieve was ofcourse effortless as she always is. And now to the not so great performances. Fred Amata is an amazing director and having said that, I think it would be best if he just stayed behind the camera because his performance was not as strong as the rest of the characters. I wasn’t very convinced by Ibinabo, but whenever I say that people want to stone me so I’ll just kukuma shut up. Now, the issue is not that Fred and Ibinabo are inept actors, it’s just that they are not as good as the rest. So they almost got outshone in their mediocrity compared to the resonating acts of the others

-Setting: [5 out of 5] I loved the setting but most especially, the attention to detail. Someone definitely put in the effort to make sure that all loose ends were properly knotted. Especially in Elvina’s character’s obsession with D’banj. Even without her saying it, one could tell as her house was filled with posters and pictures of him.

-Costume/Make-Up: [5 out of 5] On point

-Video Quality: [5 out of 5] Great! Not only for the production year but for the movie in general. The effect that was sought was the effect that was created

-Soundtrack: [5 out of 5] Loved it, Loved it Loved it.

-Musical Score: [5 out of 5] Amazing!