The Eve

It’s an all too familiar experience. When a trailer revs up your excitement, only for you to watch the movie and realize that the trailer was possibly the best part of it all.

The movie, The Eve, at first glance, seemed like a more refined and better thought out version of that vacation romance feeling that Hire A Man was aiming for. In The Eve, Funsho (played by Adeolu Adefarasin) is set to marry his overbearing fiance Yewande (Beverly Naya). On the eve of the wedding, himself and his boys take a trip for his bachelor’s party. During this trip he meets and falls for Alero (Meg Otanwa) and as such things begin to fall apart.

Kudos to the production team here for trying different things. The acappella angle for one was one that was initially surprising, but a welcome surprise nonetheless. Whether it was auto-tune or lip-sync or not, the first two instances where all the actors burst into tune will appeal to most lovers of musicals. Unfortunately by the third time it happens, either the song is off or the effect has worn off because the impression was definitely not the same.

There is a certain on-the-surface feel about the movie that contrasts with the impression you get from watching the trailer. From the trailer, the film seems multi-faceted. There are four guys and then there is John Okafor and there is a multitude of ladies (from Hauwa to Meg to Beverly and so on), so inevitably you imagine that the story will be a lot more than just the story of Funsho and Alero but it isn’t. Even though the movie tries to touch on a bit more than that by including back stories for Tosan and Audu, and by creating a jumbled mess of a character in Ebere, it is still pretty vacant. There were many parts of this story that could have been delved into to create unforgettable and indelible characters, but in the end even a legend like John Okafor is wasted in this movie. You know to quit with the expectations when John Okafor really only has one comic line (which was already in the trailer) and his most impactful scene is one where his character is relegated to the wise old head role.

But as far as the story that was told, no matter how superficial it felt, it still hit all the spots it aimed for. Adeolu is convincing as the timid nerd and Beverly brings it home in the over-domineering fiance role. Kunle attempts to deliver conflicted complexity with his character of Audu and succeeds at a basic level. Efa Iwara creates an impression with Ebere’s instability and Mawuli owns the bad boy role we’ve come to know and love him for. The women do not have as much of an opportunity to shine in this movie but still when Meg’s character does not seem like she is throwing herself at Funsho, she does a good job. Props to Hauwa for killing the nollywood stereotype that when you produce your own movie you have to make the entire movie about you or your character.

Most of my grievance with the movie is in the writing and its lack of depth. If you look past that and the staggering camera shots and inconsistent audio in a few scenes, then this is still quite an enjoyable Sunday evening chick flick with ample amounts of eye candy to boot ;).