A Long Night

As the opening credits rolled, I kept waiting for a name to pop up that I could not recognize but name after name was easily identifiable. Come! Is everybody in this movie?

A Long Night is set in a singular household and unfolds as one regular evening turns into a long night when a family of five siblings get attacked by armed robbers. It was intended to be a simple operation but things get complicated when the robbers realize that their loot is not available and will not be available until the next morning. The gang, led by Van Vicker, decide to wait it out till the next morning.

It was surprisingly heart warming to see Van Vicker on the screens again. The last time we’d seen him on screen (NR) was in “The Kingdom” and since then he has definitely developed his craft especially for the villain roles (he might actually be better at this than ‘lover boy’ roles). There was a certain ease and swagger about him, even with his limp, in the gang leader role.

But beyond Van Vicker, this movie had an amazing cast. It is nearly impossible to pick a spotlight actor between Julius Agwu and his ever so precise jabs (see memorable quotes) and Lepacious Bose and her uncanny ability to make declining the audacious offer of indomie as opposed to soup during an armed robbery attack seem natural.

Bayray McNwizu and Tamara Eteimo were also in this movie but didn’t have huge enough scenes to have been impactful, however, their presence definitely saved us the trouble of tolerating some less capable actors. And Uche Jombo did well in the role of oppressed victim.

The storyline of this movie flows very smoothly from start to finish that by the time the end comes rolling around you’ve forgotten where you are (especially if you, like me, have become incapable of seeing movies from start to finish in one sitting). It was a touch shocking to see the bae Okey Uzoeshi carrying a gun in this movie, talk less of all the other atrocious things they had him doing here *tisk tisk* (I kid) but he handles it well and sells it.

The movie, A long night, manages to weave humor into an otherwise unfunny situation and make it seem very natural. The gem of this movie is in the comedy moments that are done oh so well by the combo of Agwu and Bose.