Fine Wine

If you truly are a hopeless romantic then don’t waste your time reading this review, just click here and start watching. If not, then read on and let’s try and make a case for “Fine Wine”.

This romance flick tells the story of a yong Kiama (Ego Nwosu) who meets and finds herself falling for the older Mr. George (Richard Mofe Damijo). She has been in a long term relationship with Tunji (Demola Adedoyin), her co-worker who seems to have no respect for her. She in turn seems to lack a sense of self-worth until Seye George shows up and essentially “shows her what she is worth”.

Fine Wine is a cute love story that does exactly what you think it will do at every point that you expect it to do. The biggest surprise here really is the attitude of Mr. George’s daughter, Temisan (Zainab Balogun) when she realizes that her father might be in love with a woman who is possibly younger than her. However, asides from this the writer sticks to the tropes beat for beat. If this is a problem for you, you might have a hard time watching.

However, Fine Wine might make you question whether formulas are actually all bad. I’m leaning to the school of though that formulas in romance flicks when paired with good acting is a recipe for a wholesome time and that’s what this movie is. RMD = romance and romance = RMD, and in the moments he stares at Kiama’s character, it makes every trope in this movie worth it. Ego Nwosu as Kiama might not be a revelation. It’s hard to tell because the character doesn’t require much of her. Regardless, she does well enough pulling you into her character and causing you to fall in love right along with her. Or was that just an extension of the RMD effect.

I will say that the writing here is very much on the surface on many levels. Certain scenes conveniently needed to happen to move the storyline along, but if you are not a hopeless romantic “waiting for the love to happen” they will make you cringe. These are scenes like the prequel to the shopping scene, the many scenes where a sensible young lady like Kiama continues to be disrespected, the fact that Kiama is set up to have a certain type of values yet she has no qualms stringing both men along for as long as she does, etc. It would have been nice to scratch a little bit further into the story and blend the lines better.

This movie pulls in a lot of big wig actors in a matter that I am inclined to describe as false advertising. For a 2 hour movie billed with Nse, Zainab and Segun, I hate to inform you that their combined screen times is probably less than 15 minutes. It’s not a disappointment though because what we get is worth the watch, just don’t be surprised when that’s what you get.

All in all, Fine Wine is wholesome, it’s sweet and it’s endearing. RMD carries the movie without effort. The writer does well enough to let the film float. It’s not an exceptional love story however it is heart warming.