Collision Course

Collision Course is truly a collision of beautiful storytelling and talent!

It tells the story of a struggling musician from a wealthy background, Mide (Daniel Etim Effiong), who is trying hard to prove to his father that he can make it without his law degree and still support his girlfriend (BamBam) and their unborn child. On the other side, there is Magnus (Kelechi Udegbe) a struggling police officer who aspires to join the TARZ unit (a play on SARS) in order to earn more to feed his wife and his three kids and hopefully move them out of the squalor they currently live in. We follow a couple of days in the lives of these two characters as we watch as Nigeria continues to happen to each of them repeatedly until their lives collide in an unfortunate series of events.

I find that a disclaimer is absolutely necessary here as I must mention that I am not an intellectual movie watcher. I do not care for the technicalities of things, I simply care to be moved. What is important is that story is told well and carries me through from start to finish and that’s what Collision Course does. So much so that at the end of it’s (yes) relatively brief runtime, I thought the movie was only beginning.

It’s hard to say that any singular department (actors, writers, directors, editors, etc.) is the star of the show here. Instead, it’s an uncommonly beautiful moment when all elements line up to elevate the story and the mood of the movie. The pacing here is glorious, no piece of it is unnecessary or dragged. And it’s held up by the most efficient actors. Daniel gives Mide emotional depth and takes the audience through his plight just with his facial expressions. Chioma in that scene shouting in the hospital makes your heart break along with hers and reminds us that this acting thing can’t be learned in a book and that experience is incomparable. Bambam is truly a revelation not just at the depth of her emotional turmoil but even in light scenes, she is a pleasure to behold. Gregory bodies the ‘commander’ as he walks around arranging things in his final scene while creating a striking fear that this could be anybody ‘you’ know. And Kelechi truly breaks you in the scene when he’s alone in the car calling his own name.

There are a number of ‘preachy’ moments towards the end but unlike other movies, the preaching never gets to the level of becoming too sermon-y. Maybe it’s because I am a child of the Sorosoke generation but the events of this movie moves you in a manner that’s unquestionable. Possibly because the reality of it is so present and tangible. Each of the main characters is written with enough backstory and enough of an understanding of the motives that got them here. And just like the state of the country it reflects, it ends in the middle of chaos without a satisfactory resolution.

One thing worth mentioning though is this current nollywood obsession with flooding the movies with popular afrobeats song in an attempt to hold the audience even in scenes where they are unnecessary. It doesn’t do anything to destroy this movie, thankfully. However, the distraction could have been done without.