The Courier

Watching this movie, you cannot escape the overwhelming feeling that something is wrong. Looking at the bits and pieces and parts, they seem mostly right. It was not until the end of the movie that I realized what it was. The movie does most things right  but it just feels like, and appears like, a Yoruba movie in English.

The Courier tells a different story of a girl who is apparently blessed/misfortuned with luck in the drug dealing business. She has become an invaluable asset to a drug baron but unfortunately now she wants out. It follows her life into drugs, her life during drugs, and her life out of drugs (and rereading that statement I realize how it doesn’t exactly follow it clearly). The storyline is a bit confusing at first but it clears itself up as it goes. The movie doesn’t segue well at all. As mentioned earlier it’s again that general Yoruba movie feeling, it looks like a Yoruba movie, it has many Yoruba movie cues, and it ends like a Yoruba movie – making sure that everything ties morally.

The performances in this movie were not necessarily impressive but they were ok. Ada Ameh was definitely the star of the movie, and I’d have to call that smart casting because without her in that character I don’t think I’d have had the motivation to make it through the entire movie.

The extras are mostly weak, the continuity is shaky and off, for the most part things just seem to happen out of nowhere, some of the advert placements – Onga – could have been a little less obvious, the camera does appear unsteady in many scenes, and no one can ignore those ridiculously terrible gunshot scenes. Ramsey Nouah as a drug baron isn’t exactly shockingly new for him but he does a good job in the role. Awe Moradeke, who also happens to have written and produced the movie, seems a bit forceful as an actress. She does the aggressive scenes well but lacks conviction in the mellow ones. Joseph Benjamin on the other hand seems to have the opposite problem. He does a fair enough job in the mellow scenes but I’m not entirely convinced by his performance in intense scenes. He does still come off as a bit too mechanical which makes it hard to empathize with him.

As a whole, the movie has an unexpected comedic appeal but asides from that the substance of the movie is not entirely captivating enough in and of itself.