Mr & Mrs Chapter Two

A wise man once said if a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so. There is an unspoken law in movie reviewing that a reviewer’s job is to tell the audience what he thinks or how he feels about a movie. Nothing less but certainly nothing more. You are to provide opinions, informed opinions, but opinions nevertheless. I am going to break this law and invoke the wrath of the movie review gods. I put to you not an opinion but a fact. This was not a good movie (but let’s keep this between us shall we?).

Mr and Mrs Chapter Two starring Chidi Mokeme and Rita Dominic is a pitched as a story of three interconnected couples, each dealing with a unique crisis. A family who loses their primary source of income, a soon to be married couple and a newly wedded couple encountering challenges. That is what it could be. What it is in fact is the old Nollywood uninspired quintessential age old story of the evil mother-in-law/ex-wife. It is a throwback to Old Nollywood but rather than inspire warm nostalgia, reminds you of the poor writing and clumsy directing of old. This is particularly frustrating because in an ambitious industry making stories that need to be told, and with the movie riddled with subplots with potential that are never explored (perhaps for the better as I fear they would have been handled poorly), whose idea was it that a propaganda piece on the importance of a woman staying at home (or risk the damnation of the children) and following her husband’s orders is what the audience needed? Because if there is a more subtle and nuanced lesson in it, I searched but I did not find.

In “Mr and Mrs: Chapter 2,” Kobi (Chidi Mokeme) loses his job after his father’s crisis with EFCC costs him his money and businesses and then we witness a superficial transformation into an unreasonable spoilt man-child and a strain on his marriage with his wife Sharon (Rita Dominic) who has to work to provide for the family. As it attempted to bring the classic mother in law drama to the 21st century, the direction of the movie was far from seamless and left a lot to be desired. It was riddled with pointless scenes that did nothing to the story and chose to not explore more fascinating sub-plots on homosexuality and drug abuse. There is in particular, perhaps the most absurd scene I have witnessed in a while, where the director somehow attempts to merge a bowel movement with romance. Sadly the movie was only at its most comfortable when displaying ostensible wealth, but in exploring any of the issues fell flat. As a consequence, although Rita Dominic gives a competent performance despite the poor script (file this under waste of her talents), the rest of the cast were drowned by the one-dimensional nature of their characters. The movie generally felt like old Nollywood in new skin, appealing in its scope but lacking in substance with its strangest and strongest asset not a compelling story or great performances but its set design.

Another damning quality of the movie were some of the conversations that propelled the plot which were so insane and didn’t have any semblance of logic, so much so that they forgot to be entertaining. For example, the husband ordering his wife to quit when he actually has no job of his own or means of getting cash, and subsequently after borrowing money rather than working gives his son a speech about responsibility, giving perhaps the most bizarre response in cinema by a father to his son acquiring drug related debt.  Even with these illogical progressions, the movie stretched on for too long and fails to make a smooth landing with its resolution. Ultimately, you might come wanting to see a great movie but will stay only for Rita Dominic.