Before God And Man

What happened to those cute little love stories that Nollywood used to mass produce like they were going out of style? Now everything must be complicated and over the top. I originally thought that this movie was going to be Cinderella Story no. 2005, but it wasn’t and that is not a bad thing. I just longed for another type of simplicity.

At its heart it is an advocacy film urging people to get educated and informing I am guessing the people of the state of their government’s initiative. It’s easy to follow and engaging enough. This movie isn’t going to challenge you with twists and turns but that doesn’t mean it is not good or enjoyable. I like how there was a little mystery at the end and it’s a bit thrilling. I do like how realistic it is, not a lot of films address what happens when the two cultures clash and how embarrassing it can be. The characters are complex especially Ini Edo’s character and that of her friend who become the driving force of everything good in her life; I particularly loved the family situation.

Ini Edo is truly timeless; she can act a 40 year old mother as well as a 15 year old girl without missing a beat. And here she was perfect, in both her role as the uneducated village girl and that of the educated mistress. Desmond Elliot so rarely seen these days acting showed us just why we miss him; he was great which added even more to my nostalgia. His character was hard to like but portrayed perfectly. The supporting actors were good too although there wasn’t a lot of acting needed. Patience Ozokwor was glowing in this looked great and acted great. She doesn’t often act these kinds of high-class roles but she wore it well. Moses Armstrong irritated me to no end with the constant ‘Before God and Man’ in fact to me it distracted from his performance and Ime Bishop Umoh was so convincing he started to annoy me but he was as always funny

The sound track is rich and varied and added to the setting to give a sense of depth. I did feel, and this is very objective, that the costuming could have been much better as sometimes it looked like it was 2008. Before God and Man, what was the deal with Ini’s wedding getup???

In conclusion this film sure is low key with a very strong theme, is easy watching and easy to follow. It does not require any mental gymnastics or anything to make it stupid and that is enjoyable in itself. I would recommend this one even though the title was dropped so many times it became very enraging.