Timeless

The 2009 romantic comedy, “It’s Complicated” was my introduction to lovers from the bygone years. It’s a different kind of charm, but charming it still is.

Timeless could have quite easily been a short story because it feels like it ends just as soon as it starts. It’s the story of an aged widower, Thomas, who recently lost his wife of many years and then decides to go back to his hometown and do what he has always intended to do – find and marry the love of his life. The love of his life is Imela, who thankfully is still alive (because when your protagonists are this old, you have new problems to factor in) and lives alone abandoned by her husband.

The movie is charming. At a runtime of 71 minutes, it’s shorter than your average 90 minute movie and while it feels brief it achieves its purpose and the music captures the feeling that was intended. Joke presents her character as someone who belongs in that setting; and even though Jude Chukwuka initially seems out of place, after he finds Imela all the walls break down. It iis amazing to watch Joke in this. Especially in the scene when she’s first reconciled with Thomas and she goes in to cry. She cries like it was yesterday. She cries like she’s not graying. She cries as though the matter has been on her mind every minute of her life since then.

As far as the story goes, it does a great job of bringing the viewers in to a place where you are on both Thomas and Imela’s team, where you are rooting for them harder than you rooted for your own relationships.

You soon realize though that there is only weak link bringing everyone’s performance down in this movie and that’s Rotimi Salami as Sam the grandson. In his initial scenes, he is easy to dislike but the character is such. However, when it’s time to like the character and you still dislike him you realize it’s just poor performance on his part.

The inclusion of Kesia’s character, played by Ijeoma Grace Agu, is really the buffer to Salami’s performance. If the movie was to exist entirely without the character of Kesia (which could have been done), it would have been brought down by Salami’s performance. To be fair, in an average movie Salami’s performance or lack thereof would not have been so glaring. However, in this movie you have Silva, you have Chukwuka and you have Grace Agu, let’s just say the odds weren’t in his favor.

Another thing in the movie that brings down the quality is the sound. There was no balance between dialogue and environmental noise. So when people are talking and the music fades, you hear both the dialogue and the noises at the same level.

It’s a great initial attempt at production from Grace Agu. To make this movie better we’d need better cinematography, or at least just consistent because some parts of this movie seemed better done than the others. We’d need better editing that’s not lazy at any point. We’d need actors that can match, if not then they can wakapass. And we’d need for someone who is able to withdraw N500,000 without batting an eyelid to drive a car that fits the position.