Love or Something Like That

We are way past the initial fervor of a select few filmmakers actually being able to make quality movies. Currently we are at the point where we realize that even the greats are not infallible. Therefore, whenever you are preparing to see a Shirley Frimpong-Manso movie, there’s always a risk associated. The movie is either going to be unquestionably great or you are about to sit through two hours of straight-up boredom.

Love or Something like that was a little bit of both with a lot of dragging spaces. It tells the story of a newly wed couple played by Joselyn Dumas and John Dumelo. The wife is a surgeon who one day meets her ex who has pancreatic cancer with a side of HIV. She learns that she could have also contracted this so she gets a check-up and finds out that she has it. This puts a strain on her relationship with her husband and somehow she starts to fall back with her ex, played by O.C. Ukeje.

The movie does get right into it from the get go but it still drags on slowly. So much so that all the preliminary expository information (i.e setting up the story and characters) was done and the story had moved significantly into the rising action and I still thought we were still on the exposition. I had to consciously wake my mind up that this is it, the story has begun.

This movie is possibly best viewed in a cinema because then there are no other distractions and you are compelled to pay undivided attention to the movie (that and the fact that you paid money for it). Our usual nollywood cinema is one that grabs your attention, for this movie though you need to willingly give your attention because that is the only way the story works. After your attention is committed, then and only then do the emotions begin to develop and the story finds a connection.

The movie has beautiful cinematography and picture and the performances are fairly developed. Joselyn did very well as the central character, when the climax came the audience was able to connect with her. John did fairly well and regardless of the yellow-eyed vampire look O.C. Ukeje still did very well. The three leads held the movie and Nana Mensah is always a delight to watch, but apart from these four every occasional extra seemed to be reciting their lines.

The movie has beautiful music, there are a lot of sexual and intimate scenes in this movie, and it is a slower film but it was still a good movie with an interesting message. At the end of the movie you realize that the couple has managed all of this in their marriage even before their wedding portraits arrive. Love or Something Like That is a different taste but it is not at all a bad movie.