Breaded Life

The stories that stay with us as movie viewers are not necessarily the grandest ones but the ones that pull us in and hold us captive. Breaded Life does just that.

Breaded Life is the story of Sunmi (Timini Egbuson) a spoilt twenty something year old young man from a rich family. His mother (Tina Mba) is constantly frustrated with him as he lacks motivation to do anything with his life asides from “chopping life”. One day he wakes up and no one around him seems to recognize him, he’s thrown out of his home and labeled a thief. He then finds himself in the ghetto with no one to help him asides from the bread seller (Bimbo Ademoye) who recognizes his face.

If there is one thing Biodun Stephen excels at, it is storytelling. The combination of her writing and direction almost always creates a final result that draws you into the world of the characters and makes it hard to leave. This is what works with Breaded Life! Though a simple story and arguably a relatively unoriginal premise (riches to rags and back to riches), it’s not the novelty that is enticing. It’s the characters, it’s the dialogue, it’s the frustrations that are made tangible by the combination of both, it’s the simplicity of the moments, it’s the journey you go along with even in the montage sequences without dialogue. Breaded Life is all heart in a way that the “Ovy’s Voice” creator knows how to do best.

Asides from the storytelling here, the star is Bimbo Ademoye. She once again proves that she has no qualms with leaving behind her ‘persona’ and her ‘dignity’ (so to speak) in order to fall completely into a character. And the makeup, the sets, the dialogues, the costume all helped to accentuate the character of Todowode but they would have fallen flat if not for Bimbo’s prowess. At a certain point, most of the movie is in Yoruba but that switch is barely noticed because you get so engrossed in the world that has been created by Biodun Stephen.

Timini Egbuson really starts to show his skills here. As the spoilt rich boy, he is A1. There is not a character more perfect for him than that (see Superstar). However, the surprise is when he manages to maintain that momentum even in the ghetto and in the struggle. He seems to adapt seamlessly and the combination of his characters written-in endearment (in the script) as well as his performance causes us to fall in love with Sunmi by the end. The chemistry between both characters brings the lovers together as well as the audience. Having said that, Timini is still not at 100%. Good directing only takes one so far, but in the emotional scenes its clear that his muscles aren’t quite adapted yet to do the heavy lifting required in those.

Then there is the usual nollywood escape of comedy. Breaded Life, like most other nollywood movies of our time, is guilty as charged of using unnecessary “comic scenes” to try and gain/maintain audience attention. In a story like this, we could have done without it but considering the landscape of films in the industry now, I guess we should be grateful that all the comic relief scenes ended before they elicited painful eye rolls.

A story of self discovery. A story with heart. A film with supporting actors that never skip a beat. The inclusion of loved characters from other movies (see Jobe from “Picture Perfect”). And a production that works to bring all of these together. Breaded Life works because it’s pure heart with a relatively innocent lead that the audience is made to root strongly for from start to finish.