A Mother’s Fight

“A Mother’s Fight” is an advocacy film detailing the travails of a newly widowed woman.

Ofcourse being that we’ve only ever had a handful of movies that deal strictly with the sufferings of a widow in a typical Nigerian society, it’s not far fetched that comparisons will be made between this movie and Stella Damasus’ “Widow” from a couple years back.

Before I go into the review of the movie in its entirety, I’d like to point out a couple great/massive points the movie makes. Firstly apparently most women don’t realize that a traditional wedding and a church wedding are simply ceremonies in the eyes of the law and you need to sign papers for the state to recognize your union. And failure to do so could result in dire consequences. And secondly, I can’t remember where I heard this but it is fact that every individual over the age of 18/with a working job and/or other responsibilities should have an ongoing will that is edited at least annually.

So now to the movie. The movie title and synopsis create expectations: you expect to cry, you expect to moved, you expect to learn something and things like that. But unfortunately, the first half of the movie seemed more like an array of scenes. Almost like Big Brother or should I say a reality show with background music. I was not a fan of the transitioning in the first half of the movie so it was like I was seeing these things but I wasn’t feeling anything.

The ‘feeling’ component doesn’t really kick in until the second half where *spoiler* Uche’s character is hawking on the street. Now, the feelings don’t kick in because she’s now subjected to hawking wares on the streets of Lagos. To be honest, I’d have still been bored if not for the music that kicks in. As soon as the soundtrack kicks in, the movie becomes alive and it finally makes an emotional connection.

Most of the extras in this movie were terrible but the leads were able to hold their own. Uche did a fair enough job with the character. I was delighted to see Kiki Omeili (you may know her as ‘Lovette’ from ‘Lekki Wives’) again. She’s an actress that’s easy to love and she did very well with her character.

Bobby Obodo. I’m probably going to need to stop talking about Bobby because every time I comment on his acting someone comes and fires me. Then I think ok maybe I’m being a bit too harsh so I go and see another of his movies and the same thing happens again. He’s doing everything, but he’s just not convincing as an actor.

And I can’t not mention Prince Nwafor who was completely at home with this character. Practice makes perfect? Or something like that? Whatever the case maybe Prince was flawless in his rendition.

To state it simply, the movie had potential to be an emotionally thrilling journey but the development of the story was weak and it ended up falling short. I definitely think ‘widow’ was a much better and much more moving advocacy film for the plight of widows.

Trailer: