Rebecca

Ok, so we have yet another Shirley Frimpong-Manso movie and if you follow this blog at all you’ll know how I feel about those. I respect the woman and I respect her work. However, I will not deny that most of her work either starts off as or is completely a trial of patience they drag at some point or the other. Add to that the fact that this is a two cast movie, and if there’s anything I learned from “Why Marry?”, it is to not be too excited about 2 cast films.

But I’m glad to say that Rebecca was not a let down.

It only took 10 minutes to kick off (so please have at least that much of patience abeg) as it tells the story of a city man who is on his way back to the city from the village. In the car with him is his new bride whose English (or any language) speaking abilities are questionable. For all we know, she is a mute because she does take her oh-so-precious time to reveal her voice in this film. Theirs is a relationship that was forced. They were both betrothed and by crook or by hook, through promises and vows, through restraints and restrictions have been forced to end up on this path.

So you already guessed it, it’s a romance. And it is my personal favorite type of romance – “married people romance”. I find that these are a lot more engaging and a bit more “life & death” than the romances centered around single people.

Joseph Benjamin and Yvonne Okoro were the only two characters in the frame at any point and while Joseph Benjamin held his own, bringing enough conviction to his character, Yvonne takes the cake. In the beginning parts where she is not speaking, she is forced to say a lot without saying anything and she slays this.

One of my biggest fears while watching the movie is that the entire thing will turn out to have been just a dream sequence but the writer is no sissy. She manages to tie all this together while keeping in the realm of reality. Speaking about the realm of reality, Rebecca probably has one of the best and most well-shot “intimacy sequence” (aka sex scene) in a Ghanaian or Nigerian production.