Flirting with Fifty

Apparently Flirting with fifty is the story of a supposedly elderly woman (she’s only 50 though… apparently we all have different definitions of elderly) who falls for and begins to date a young 26 year old. Our cougar, played by Chinyere Wilfred, passes away and the race is on to determine whether her young boyfriend, Kunle Remi, is responsible for her death.

To say that this movie was tedious to watch would be stating it kindly. There really is no motivating factor to keep you watching from start to finish because from the first scene we already know that our cougar, Mrs. Williams, is dead. We already know that the boyfriend is being suspected and we already know that she is dating a younger man. The only real question left is whether or not the boyfriend would be found guilty of murder, however, the way the storyline is set up doesn’t inspire you to care about finding out.

And the actors do not help the case. The few seconds that I was actually enthused about watching this movie involved Belinda Effah in her scenes. In other scenes there was just nothing happening, or we had actors who looked like they did not want to be there, or we simply had Onyi Alex consistently over-acting.

Then there are the court scenes. If this movie was forgettable in the first half then the court scenes in the second half changes all of that — it will give you too much to remember. There were simply too many questions in those scenes – and I am not referring to the ones asked by the supposed barristers to members of the audience during ‘deliberations’. Let’s not get into the fact that the members of the audience solely consisted of family members of the accused and the accusers. Please tell me what the purpose is of turning to this crowd, in your opening statement, and telling them “Now I will proceed to show you why said suspect is guilty”. THEY DON’T CARE! They are either his family or the ones accusing him so they already have an opinion set in stone. How about we turn to the judge and try convincing him – especially considering that he is the only person in that room who decides whether you win or you loose your case. Needless to say… I followed this movie by watching multiple episodes of Suits and Law & Order just so I can remember what it looks like to create a set up of a convincing court.

In the end, Flirting with Fifty was 2 hours of my life that I am never going to get back. I guess you can call it suspenseful but if you paid any sort of attention to the casting you could determine how the story ends from the beginning.