Sobi’s Mystic

It is not a crime to make movie watchers think. Too many movies these days – Bollywood, Nollywood, Hollywood, Action, Comedy, Drama, Horror, Romance, etc. – all seem to subscribe to this ‘leave your brain behind’ genre of film. Thank God for films that actually have you thinking like this one.

In Sobi’s Mystic, an avid playboy meets a girl in a club but this time the roles are reversed. Even though he is used to being the heartbreaker, this time his own heart is on the line and the girl seems to hold all the power. In no time, he finds himself falling for her and falling all over her but unfortunately for him she doesn’t reciprocate his feelings.

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN INADVERTENT SPOILERS

When you read the first part of the synopsis, you already know the story. Or so you think. I really went through this movie racking my head. There’s no thought that did not cross my mind. I went from first thinking “ok so she’s just a trifling wife” then “hold on! How is she able to manage all this ‘activity’ without her husband knowing”. I held on to this line of thought for a while and then I started to think “No o! Sobi’s girl drives a Toyota meanwhile other chic drives a Honda”….. “Or… It could be a rental” “Or maybe this is like John Tucker must die and all his exes actually planted her with him in order to get revenge” then the light bulb moment arrived when I thought “nah! They are too different! They must be twins like that Ini Edo movie!” …”Or she has split personality disorder”.

I finally settled on split personality disorder and was 90% convinced that was what it was. However, knowing Biodun Stephen there was only one thing that I could truly count on which was that the odds of it being anything stereotypical are tiny because from her previous work you can tell that she is not one to spoon feed the audience.

After watching so many movies, I had begun to embrace the idea that there’s no longer any such thing as originality in film writing because all original stories have already been told. Hence, all that’s left for writers these days is to recombine these ideas into different formulas. This mode of thinking definitely allows you to be less expectant. However, after seeing Sobi’s Mystic my greatest realization is that just because you can write and you think you have a story doesn’t mean you should write and create a film because much more thinking is involved.

Now even though the actors came to ‘work’ on this movie (which I will get into in a bit), the spotlight still has to sit with the writer. Hats off to you for keeping the audience on their feet throughout the movie but not just that. There are suspense films that are only able to hold you because you just want to make it to the end to find out what happened but that’s not the case here. Even though you want to know what to know the answer to the puzzle, that’s not the only thing that keeps you going. At the 1hr mark of this movie, it arrived at its turning point and my first thought was “already? how? Does that mean you are going to end soon? Stop playing!” because it captures you in a manner that you don’t want it to let go.

And this capturing would not have been possible without our actors. Our two favorite Biodun Stephen men are here again: Mofe Duncan (Ovy’s Voice) and Kunle Remi (Tiwa’s Baggage) – by the way we are noticing the trend with how these movies are named. Not really sure what movie it was, but after seeing a certain Kunle Remi film my initial impression was confusion. This is because I couldn’t really tell whether or not it was just a script that allowed him to coast along or if he truly had any acting chops, however Remi came to work in this film. Even though we are still waiting to see his true greatness completely materialize on screen, in this one you could see the makings of it. The script allowed him to be heartbroken, to be fun, to be determined and to be in love and he does a decent job of bringing those feelings to life on the screen.

Then there’s our leading lady – Mystic, played by Bolaji Ogunmola. The movie did not even end before I was googling her. It was hard to see her real life persona after seeing her as Mystic and Aida. This is because she becomes these characters so well that her real life seems like a whole other entity. The switch from Mystic and Aida even had me questioning at some point whether she was even the same human being playing it –  I mean, you really can never tell with makeup these days– so in a certain frame, I paused the movie to stare at her and make sure it was the same person.

In the end, Sobi’s Mystic doesn’t win because of one thing. It’s not the performances that make it good. Neither is it that utterly neat effect of pulling up the screen of the phone in the air to show the caller ID without actually focusing on the phone. It’s also not the music performances in the club that actually tie into the mood of the movie at that point, neither is it just the ambitious writing. It’s everything together that makes it great – it’s a well oiled machine. Here again, another film maker proves why it’s important for film makers to be involved in every part of making their movie. The vision isn’t lost here and the audience, at the end, gets to feel just what the writer initially intended for them to feel.