Sisters at War

Somewhere along the lines in the attempt to be too different from everyone and everything else, this movie lost me completely.

Sisters at war is the story of two sisters – Jackie Appiah and Okawa Shaznay – who are left a huge inheritance after their father’s death. Said father’s will, made the elder sister, Jackie Appiah, the sole signatory to his account, and Okawa Shaznay’s character is left under the care of elder sister.

The recipe equals drama. But unbeknownst to the audience and some other characters in the movie the drama began way earlier than that in the story. The story is full of many twists and turns such as this. With allegiances being made and broken, partnerships being formed and faked, relationships being built and pretentious, etcetera etcetera until somewhere along the line you are no longer sure who is on whose side, who is the good guy? Is there even a good guy or is everyone just looking out for their own interest?

On another note though, that aspect of the story and the story itself is the only aspect of the movie that requires any major brain power. Otherwise, this movie is filled with a lot of cliches and mostly failed attempts at reproducing the brilliant aspects of other classic action/suspense flicks.

Jackie Appiah and Okawa Shaznay who play sisters in this movie bring more to the screen than I am sure they originally intended. They serve a full dose of unbelievable with a side of what the heck. Some of the lines given to them, Okawa especially, seemed a little too much for them to handle. The words were strong but the presentation of the words was not on par with the strength of the lines being delivered. As regards Jackie in this movie, there was a certain lack of effort because Jackie has and is capable of doing better work. Having said that though, for a newbie Okawa is putting in a lot of work, a lot of work still needs to be done on making her seem more natural and less forceful but the effort is there.

Yvonne Nelson, like everyone else in this movie, plays a double agent. It seemed as though more work was put into her make-up and outfit than into the characterization. Her character had the potential to be the most memorable aspect of the entire movie but in the end it came off very lackadaisical. To blame the writer, or to blame the director, or to blame the actor? All three have their share of blame for it.

The movie drags and there is occasional ‘unintended’ comic relief like hearing Yvonne Nelson call out to a houseboy named ‘Iyanya’, or just every scene where Artus is speaking. The movie has the pump and the glamour you’d expect from an Abdul Salam Mumuni production, but more than ever before, no one knows what to do with it.