Devil In A Dress

This was one of those movies where you hit play on but cannot find the motivation to continue to watch. The story is played out – or so it seems at first glance. The cast consists of the usual culprits and the trailer, synopsis and poster are basically selling you the same “4Play” tactic from pre-2008.

Even though “Devil In A Dress” is not entirely the unoriginal shallow desperate almost romantic comedy it dresses up as, it’s still not very far away from that mark. The idea has been done many times before, the best being by Uche Jombo and Ramsey Nouah in “Cassanova”. Devil In A Dress is a story of three friends and a man eater. Each one of the three friends are pathological players and they are all foiled when they each individually meet one man-eater.

From this point, even a blind man can tell you the direction the movie will follow. Therefore watching this movie is definitely not in search of originality. Hence the question arises, what is left to hold the viewers attention? Uber talented actors? Something different in the approach? A twist at the end?

It definitely was not the former – uber talented actors – because even though this movie does star Majid Michel, the other actors were not talented enough to drive this two hour long ridge plough. The movie also stars Uti Nwachukwu and Kafui Danku. Uti is an actor who is still sharpening his skills and we’re not really certain whether it’s fair to him or the viewers that he is being already thrown into a pivotal role. Kafui Danku as the protagonist or antagonist of the story line did the best that seemed possible for the ludicrous character she was assigned.

Somewhere in between all this were real moments of slight humor.  An intentional jab here at nollywood cinema and a statement about dating that is relatable to others, is pretty much as entertaining as the movie gets.

The movie is shallow and definitely without any significant facade of depth. It reaches deep into many unbelievable situations and pulls them off as plausible. The humor tries and fails more times than not. And I’m not really certain what was going on with the numerous asides and references of the director and his type of movie making while also featuring said director within the movie. Somewhere intertwined in this attempt at being ‘different’, the believability factor was gradually slipping.

The movie does pick up pace, however, somewhere after the halfway point. After the feeble character introductions it plunges into a storyline that is semi-entertaining for a day when your entertainment options are limited.