Losing You

-Originality: [0 out of 5] I think there are 3 central rules to remaking a movie. No. 1. You must first get authorization from the original movie makers. 2. You must give credit to the owners of the story somewhere in the movie, if to say you no be thief. 3. You must make the movie better or at least of a comparable level of excellence, not worse (of course rule no. 3 is flexible and not an actual rule… although it should be.) These people stole not the American version, but the Indian version, line for line, scene for scene, subtitle for subtitle…. I am Amazed by the astounding lack of originality

-Predictability: [3 out of 5] I would say that the predictability is dependent on whether or not you’ve seen the originals or not. In the first episode though, no one can see the end coming however after the second episode starts and the story goes on the ending is inevitable (it’s actually really sad…)

-Directing/Editing: [2 out of 5] I am so vexated by the directing in this movie. I feel like the job should have been given to Pascal Amanfo because this was just so annoying. It’s not like the main actors couldn’t act but the director just failed in general. We don’t seem to realize that directing is an art, it’s not just about saying action and cut. The director of the movie has to first see the movie both wholistically and in parts, in his head. If not it would be literally impossible to convey this on screen. You have to tell the actors how you see it for them to actually reproduce what you imagine. I could see Yvonne Okoro in many scenes trying to get into the role. I’m just vexated by the continuity of this movie. The scene progressions were too frigging sudden for a sad movie. And before I forget, dear doctor, it is cervical cancer as in [sir-vee-kal] not [sir-vayi-cal]. I had gone back and re-watched the Hindi version only to realize that the reason the doctor in the Ghanaian version pronounced it like that was because that was how the doctor in the Hindi version pronounced it. The only thing they don’t realize is that the doctor in the Indian version can get away with that because she was saying an English word in a Hindi statement with an Indian accent. But the doctor in the Ghanaian version was definitely speaking English.

-Acting quality: [2 out of 5] The extras can’t act but that’s not the annoying part, most extras in African movies can’t act. The annoying thing is that the kids couldn’t act! Aargh… there is really no excuse for kids that are incapable of acting in a movie because I’ve seen African movies where little kids give mind blowing performances. I have nothing against Adjetey Anang, I think he is an amazing actor and always gives his roles the best he can but for some reason I felt John Dumelo would have fit into the role better for some reason. Yvonne Okoro gave her best and I’d say was the strongest character in this movie. I’ve never thought Yvonne Nelson was a horrible actress before but I strongly believe that she could have dug a little deeper for her character in this movie. Her performance was too much on the surface to be her best.

-Setting and Costume/Make-Up: [3 out of 5] Well done, even the location of the fashion show was on point and the clothes the models wore were also good. 

-Video Quality [4 out of 5] Great

-Soundtrack and Musical Score [1 out of 5] I liked the soundtrack but I feel like the guy who did the musical score needs to be fired (and then they can go ahead and hire Bernie Anti). For a movie this sad, you would need intense music that can carry the viewer’s emotions… which is a skill that only two Ghanaian musicians (for film that I’ve noticed) have the ability of doing and they are Bernie Anti and ‘Bisa’ (I think is the name). I feel like had Bernie Anti done the music, he would have crept into your soul and excavated the emotions from within, whether or not the actors could or could not act. Something like what Shankar Ehsaan Loy did for “We are Family”.

It’s taken me long enough to get around to this movie. Got it sometime early last month and after I read the synopsis and found out that it was a rip of Karan Johar’s “We are Family” which in itself is a remake of the 1998 movie, “Stepmom” (notice my word choice. There is a difference between a ‘rip’ and a ‘remake’ in that one is done with permission and the other is done without. One is done with originality and by changing some things up and the other is done scene for scene and line for line. You can guess which was which). I’m a big Karan Johar fan (and a big Julia Roberts fan)… in fact I’m a big fan of every single person in the Bollywood version (from Kajol to Arjun to Kareena) and a great fan of Julia and Sarandon from the Hollywood version so you’d see why I wouldn’t want to watch a version that would just ruin both experiences for me.