Thick Skinned

Thick Skinned tells the story of a young married woman suffering from abuse who meets another man whose mother had suffered the same fate. Even before the movie began, I was very skeptical because I suspected that at its worst it was going to be a ham-fisted and regressive handling of the sensitive topic of domestic abuse, and at its best it would not push any envelopes/break new ground but just be an okay movie. I’ll cut to the chase, for several reasons ranging from really bad acting to horrific editing “Thick Skinned” was not a good movie. Even worse, it was an unprofessional movie, the sort I thought was extinct in 2018 Nollywood.

Remarkably, this film seemed to believe that a low budget production had to produce low budget quality and while I could highlight multiple flaws, none were more jarring than its editing and continuity. Also, for large parts, the movie was told through the perspective of a child in an abusive home and in an ideal setting that would make for a great movie. Except this child was a bad actor and a lot of the movie hinged on him narrating and performing with a voice that somehow felt less natural than the voice that gives you directions on Google maps. Even worse, somehow even though the movie devoid of superfluous scenes was barely an hour, it fails to justify its run time despite a baffling, boring and ultimately unnecessary bad marriage subplot.

The redeeming quality (if any) of the movie has to be the competent performances by Stan Nze (Adam) as the convincingly contemptible abuser and Tamara Eteimo (Saifa) as his pathetic victim. However with the exception of them, no other performance in the entire movie is noteworthy. Also striking was the movies depiction of the casual indifference with which her abuse was regarded with a specific scene highlighting the damaging “It’s not our business” Nigerian attitude towards domestic abuse.  On the flip side, the movie chasing a cathartic high legitimizes the dangerous idea that abused victims using violence to fight violence (which could have disastrous consequences for the victims) is an appropriate way to deal with domestic violence.

Ultimately, the film ended with me asking an existential question but not the one the film’s producers would have been hoping for. I wasn’t left thinking “Domestic abuse is horrible”, instead I was left wondering “because a movie tells a real story that should be told, does that excuse how poorly it tells it?” and more importantly “when will I learn to stop trusting audience ratings on IrokoTV?”.