Fear of a Woman

So why did I hit play? Hmm… There were a few reasons like the fact that I am constantly searching for the next village movie that gives off that “Native Son” feel (not the same storyline, but the feeling). Also, there’s the fact that the two lead actors: Ken Erics & Ruth Kadiri are always (well almost always) a 100% bet when it comes to performance.

Fear of a Woman is a warped storyline of the sorts. It tells the story of Emeka, an orphan, who has refused to get married for only God knows what reasons (and to be fair, I don’t think the writers knew either because they jumped around the reasons a lot). His sister and aunt are determined, however, to make him marry Adamma (a saintly young lady who is infatuated with him for whatever reason – I guess girls like what they can’t have).

After one whole hour and 55 minute part of the movie, we get to the second part of the movie where the marriage finally happens and the storyline switches to some sort of “Stronger than Pain” remake. Except, unlike “Stronger than Pain”, here there’s a reason for the violence (…or something like that).

The storyline is A LOT jumpy. Considering both parts, the movie could have either been two separate movies or it could have been made in one part. In retrospect, there was no reason (as there hardly ever is) for this movie to have needed two parts. That is two parts of essentially 2hrs each. That’s four hours of life we are just donating away in the name of feem. The length is my biggest grief with the movie, especially because it was so unnecessary.

Asides from the length of the movie, it is an interesting enough storyline even though it doesn’t always da-ba (aka “make sense”). However, at the end of the movie, the reason for all this is settled as being the spirit wife so I guess that’s the conclusion we settle with.

Ruth and Ken do a good job holding up their characters but the biggest surprise is the young lady who plays Emeka’s sister. She has a fire that is so reminiscent of Chacha Eke. It is easy to forget that she is acting when she is on screen. I had to pull myself out like “wow, I have never seen you on screen before but you are really good”. We look forward to seeing her again.

Watch this movie as a time pass at best. It is better than most other time pass films because at least it has a storyline somewhere and actors who can perform. The prosthetics makeup might not always be on point but at least the soundtrack isn’t 100% revealing.