Seven & A Half Dates

Seven And A Half Dates (SAAHD) has a storyline that I never really thought one could flesh out into a full movie… but apparently you can.

In SAAHD, we are introduced to the workaholic Bisola and her family whose entire hope and dream is for her to get married. This is especially true of her mother, played by Sola Sobowale, who aims to get the elder sister, Bisola, married off not too long after the younger sister’s wedding is over. Her father, played by Akin Lewis, aids in this by convincing Bisola to go on 10 dates with the sons of his ‘old school’ mates and somewhere along the line the inevitable occurs, and she finds love.

The enticement of this movie is definitely not the ‘uber original’ storyline. If anything, the writers of the movie are well aware of the thin premise so they try to pull you in by drawing on already tried and tested tropes. Tropes like the nostalgia one might feel at seeing Jim Iyke in a true lover boy role once again, the excitement of seeing Mercy Johnson on screen – for those who haven’t seen her in a while, and the opportunity to see Sola Sobowale rehash a version of her over-exuberant character from “The Wedding Party” movie. To an extent it works. These factors keep you watching the film as long as you are not distracted, but once the distraction occurs you might come to realize that there was barely any flesh on the bones that’s this storyline.

In an attempt to further pad the storyline of this movie, our barely seen younger sister – played by Bayray McNwizu – is given more of a backstory. Apparently little sis has been in an abusive relationship with her fiance from the get go but not only is she in this bad position, her parents had both been aware of it and are still allowing her to marry her predator. In the grand scheme of things, its uncertain why this story arch is necessary for this particular romantic comedy but whatever the reason, it was present. It gave us the chance to see our protagonist take a brief break from her awfully cringeworthy dates and focus on something else before returning to her non-existent love life.

In the end, there’s barely anything inspiring about the experience of watching this movie. Not the comedy, not the cameos, not the uninspiring narrator, not the leads, not the tropes and not even the shoddily inserted attempt at a moralistic pull. But if you are going to still watch it anyway, watch it for that re-union scene between Jim and Mercy where we are briefly reminded of a Jim Iyke of yesteryears.