Burning Bridges

The hardest conflicts to watch – be it in a movie, book, or otherwise – are those in which all parties involved are good people. This world is set up in a way such that even the most evil of people are still inherently good people because to them their motivations are just. However, in Burning Bridges this good nature was not even that far hidden within the characters. To the plain sight and otherwise they are good people but somehow the conflict still managed to surface and that was the brilliance of the writer.

Burning Bridges is the story of a modern couple getting ready to get married when the husband-to-be, Louis’ best friend comes into the picture. The best friend, Terry, turns out to be a female and at this point every female viewer’s radar is at high alert. Personally, I thought “aha! I knew the movie was too good to be true. This is just a remake of ‘my best friend’s wedding‘”, but boooy was I wrong.

A little advice to anyone who decides to watch this movie, you will enjoy it much better if you leave your preconceived notions behind and just allow yourself to be sucked in. Terry’s arrival is met with glee from her bestfriend Louis, and his fiance, Rose. Everything is well and good until the prying eyes of others around them begin to question the relationship.

Terry is played by Esther Audu, Rose by Ivie Okujaye and Louis by Ken Erics. These three individually were amazing and effortless but together they were beautiful. In the happy moments you wish you were them; in the sad moments you are distraught for them. They played off so beautifully against each other. In the end though, it wasn’t just these three and their beautiful acting that made this movie what it was. It was also the great music and the timing, the dialogues and the story, and the brilliant directing and editing. Then there was Suzuki Ultra who played Tana, and did very well for a newcomer.

A little side sway away from the on-screen characters, in movies like this you can’t help but appreciate the little things that tied it together. First things first the music of it, and not just the soundtrack but the score as well. The score had such character, in fact, I have not seen anyone make a score with this much character since Bernie Anti. Then there was the editing which was so beautifully well laid and interlaced, not to mention the fluid directing. I’d like to give props to the music director, editor and director individually except it was all done by one person, Okey Oku.

Watching this movie, I only knew one thing which was that the movie was directed by Okey Oku which was enough for me to watch it. I didn’t read the synopsis, check out the cast, watch a trailer, check the ratings, read the comments, nothing. Because if you’ve ever seen any work by the oracle (Okey Oku) then you’d understand why he inspires so much trust because even his still photography is brilliance. So props to him and his team for making such beautiful work – not just in aesthetics but also in content.

A few shortcomings of the movie though would definitely have to include the length of the movie which spans approximately two and a half hours. That’s basically the length of a two part movie. So it is in fact a two part movie delivered in one part which we are grateful for but it doesn’t take away from the fact that you still have to sit there for two and a half hours watching one movie. Regardless, it is a give and take relationship in movies because if you want that character development then you will have to sit for the length and if not then vice versa. At the end of the movie, you cannot really point at any one scene that was unnecessary so the length is justifiable.

I will however call out the actor who plays Manny – Terry’s love interest. The character was built up, before his entrance, as some grand individual especially considering the stature of the female who had fallen for him. And then he walks in and you begin to wonder “where did they borrow this toy boy from that Terry is crushing on?”. She is here looking like a grown woman and he’s there looking like he’s struggling with puberty. Annoyingly he had a striking resemblance to Pope Jnr Odowodo which just begs the question of why the real Pope Jnr wasn’t used?

In the end, I would recommend this movie in my sleep. It brings up so many valid real world questions. The characters have real depth, and contrary to some comments on irokotv the characters are realistic – this is real people dealing with a real problem. In the end who knows if the writer of the story had a moral she intended to pass across? Because it is more than likely that every single viewer will get a different message from the movie (just look at the comments under irokotv to prove this point). The question then is, what would you do if you were in the situation?