While You Slept

The last few reviews have been for movies that start off strong and end up crumbling by the end. They either succumb to the usual storyline or act as if the director ran out of film. It is a joy to finally find a movie that does not disappoint by the time the end credits come around.

“While You Slept” is the story of a recently widowed woman, played by Ini Edo, who meets a woman – Venita Akpofure – claiming to have been her late husband’s ‘other wife’. This lady starts from a claim on title and progresses to a claim on the late husband’s property and business.

The movie also stars Joseph Benjamin and, no offense, but his role in this movie is the perfect example of an accessory male. What is an accessory male? You might be more familiar with an accessory female. You know that one female character in a strong male movie who was just put in there to even out the testosterone? It’s the male equivalent!

Do not get me wrong. His role is important, it is not simply fluff. It was nice to see that even though he was a male character and the lead was a female, the writer did not feel the need to dedicate a quarter of the movie to a supposed “love story” between both characters.

The movie, though, wasn’t all roses and sunshine. The first hour of the movie was so much more dragged out than the final hour. In the first hour you would see Ini crying for what felt like a complete half hour and there would be jogging scenes, outburst scenes, gym scenes, pointless conversation scenes, etc. At a point, I felt like I could start another movie while this was playing and miss absolutely nothing.

Honestly, the point of the first half of the movie can be summarized in five lines. They were a happy couple. Her husband died. She meets a nice male gym owner. A woman comes in claiming to have been her husband’s wife and to have had a son for him. She is sad.

The second half, in contrast, was where the real development began. There were more useful scenes and they were straight to the point. There wasn’t any extraneous scene and there wasn’t any unnecessary scene in that half. Although, I still can’t understand the purpose of the fake camaraderie between the wives towards the end of the movie.

The movie sets up like a drama. It is not until towards the end that you realize that the movie really is a suspense. The greatest asset of the movie, in my estimations, is the story. It was such a joy that at the end of this 121 minute movie, the motive and premise behind the entire thing was not some cooked up usual nollywood escape. It was not the most original, yes! But it was also not a cop out.

There were little problems in the movie that were noticeable and sometimes incoherent. Things like the initial meeting scene between Ini and Joseph where he hands her a bottle of “glucose” while she is jogging around the neighborhood and she accepts it like a goat. Babe, have you not heard of ritualists? Then there is the setup of the gym which really just looks like a garage space with 2 or 3 equipments thrown in.

The pairing of Ini and Joseph was a fine combination. Together they were able to bring the story alive and move the movie along. It was definitely interesting to see Venita as a villain. She was a good enough villain that she annoyed me, however, she could have been a much better villain to the point of eliciting fear.

In the end, the movie is a fair watch. You just might want to consider skipping the first hour though if you find yourself falling asleep while watching “While You Slept”