I Think He Loves Me

After seeing so many movies there are some trends you begin to notice. After a while these recurring trends become less of trends and simply become unoriginal and they happen most often in romantic movies. However, even more annoying than these unoriginal trends are the cop outs. A cop out, for those who don’t know, is the lazy man’s way of tying things together that are otherwise incohesive. And amongst all the varying cop-outs available, the absolute most annoying is the “and it was only just a dream” cop-out. So what are you telling me? That the last two hours of my life I spent watching this movie was only just a dream?

‘I think he loves me’ is actress Daniella Okeke’s debut film as a producer. It tells the story of a young poor girl living with her family in the slums and dating her long time boyfriend who only just recently found a job. The lady in question is played by Daniella Okeke herself and the boyfriend by O.C. Ukeje. Daniella’s character gets a job as the PA to a well known philandering celebrity played by Jim Iyke. The movie follows the path you’d imagine and goes on from there.

Before we delve into the many negative aspects of this movie, let’s cover the only one thing that did not elicit an eye roll in this film – the performances. Jim Iyke returns in this movie to his comfort zone as the casanova big spending play boy. He throws down the fake accent, he wears the fitted suites, and he rides the luxury car with the custom plates to match. All is sending that Jim Iyke note and no one else could have done it like Jim did.

The movie also sells you on O.C Ukeje on the cover but don’t be deceived, O.C only has a handful of scenes in this movie. But asides from that, whenever he was on screen, O.C always reminds us why we continue to watch him. I was not so certain, however, of Daniella’s performance. I am not sure if it is the sheer stupidity of her character but for some reason her entire presence in the movie was just irksome. As regards performances, the one character that held it down was the little girl who plays ‘Amanda’. She was such a delight to watch and nollywood needs more kid characters and actresses that fascinate like she did.

Having said that, let us talk about the movie as a whole. From get go, the one overarching feeling is that this movie feels like a PowerPoint. From the musical cues, to the continuity to the opening credits, it all felt like a tackily put together PowerPoint. After a while, that general PowerPoint feeling does go away – either because it improves or the viewer gets used to it – and it is replaced by many other annoying facets.

If there was a checklist of all the cliched stereotypical things you could possibly do in a romantic movie involving a celebrity type, then this movie definitely checked all the boxes and then some. It was so crushing watching this being able to predict every character’s next move, line and attitude. Whilst we are still on the matter of the storyline, if Nollywood held a Razzies (please google it if you don’t know what it is) this movie would pick up so many nominations and as many awards but especially for the most unoriginal storyline of the year.

In conclusion, there really hasn’t been a movie in a while that did nearly as many things wrong as this movie. From story to writing to the deafening soundtrack and the supposed-to-be-inspiring moments. The only thing that was not entirely abominable was the acting and the casting.