Glimpse

I was just sitting on my couch deflating like a balloon as this movie came to an end. Sometime in the middle of this 2 hour endeavor I had reminded myself that this is a Biodun Stephen movie so expect the unexpected, but by the time the end was rolling around I had forgotten how to expect anything. In many other movies, this end would have felt like a ‘cop out’ but, in glimpse (just like the name connotes), it definitely felt like it belonged.

Glimpse is the story of a struggling family. The husband and wife, played by Bisola Aiyeola and Okey Uzoeshi, are struggling for basic needs – they are struggling to feed, struggling for transport fare but most of all they are struggling to afford their rent which is due in 2 months. This rent deadline forms the fuel that drives this movie.

Our husband, Terfa, is strong in his faith that the Lord will do it. Or should I say, he ‘wants’ to be strong in his faith. Yes, we’ll go over the chemistry between Bisola and Okey, but one scene deserves special mention. It’s a scene in the middle of the movie after Terfa mentioned to his wife a few nights before that he is waiting on a sale with a high commission. Then after prayer one night he slumps on the couch and his wife sits by his foot rubbing it and says “you haven’t said anything about this deal o” (or something like that) and he looks at her and says “look I’m just trying to stay positive, does that answer your question?” And then you see his eyes. In that moment as you see the tears forming, you truly realize the gravity of the situation he is in. You see his weakness while trying to remain strong in his faith and knowing that his entire family is depending on him but he has nothing.

The movie as a whole is a great moral lesson but let’s take a moment to tackle some truths. To be fair, the first quarter to the first half of this movie was a bit more tedious to watch than the latter parts. It takes more to make it through this portion of the movie, not for lack of content or quality but just by the nature of the sort of movie this is. It’s no Ovy’s Voice or Tiwa’s Baggage: there’s no one falling in love at the end of this movie. Then there was the landlady, even though the character’s annoyance was necessary to send the message across there were many parts where we could have done without her prolonged rantings. When you think she’s done speaking, it’s a lie, she’s still going off.

Biodun does a good job of showing the struggle through the micro unit – such as in the living room, in their discussions, in their prayer, and in their many harassments from the landlady. However, I can’t escape the feeling that the movie would have done better to capture our attention if we’d reduced the landlady’s visits to two and used the extra space to show the struggle in real life. To go somewhere else apart from their home and office, to involve extras, to show “A Cry For Help” level struggle (don’t think of the repeated crying scenes… just think of the day to day struggle scenes). From her previous movies, we know that Biodun’s work mostly involves very little amount of characters and very little amount of locations but this movie feels like one that would have benefited from more.

Then there is the performances. Bisola takes the cake and the entire gahddamn bakery for her performance in this one and the way she manages to emote the conflict within her character. You can see her struggle between loving her husband and wanting to believe in him versus being logical and realizing that a deadline is on their neck. And the combo between Bisola and Okey is as magnetic as it was in the “Life of a Nigerian Couple”. One of my favorite parts of this movie though was Emem Ufot. It was not so much anything that he did, but mind you he did do his character justice, it was in the casting of him in a position of power and then turning him into a villainous character. We are excited to watch his growth in the industry.

By the time the end rolls around, you forget that Glimpse was actually a two hour movie and the message of the movie is definitely not lost on you. However, you still get to appreciate the great music, the beautiful picture and the poignant performances.