Love In A Pandemic

Full Disclosure. I was a bit hesitant to hit play on this one because I assumed it would be like other international pandemic movies have been. Which is generally a deep and solemn introspection into life during pandemic times that has a maximum of three characters in the movie and barely any music. And I thought I was not in the mood for that level of depth until I remembered that this is nollywood.

Love In A Pandemic is the story of Bolanle (Nancy Isime) a customer service representative who finds herself working from home alone at the beginning of the pandemic. Her long term boyfriend TJ (Eso Dike) claims to have no time for her because of the demands of his job as a doctor in pandemic times so she takes solace in the ‘voice’ of a misdial turned good friend, Alex (Deyemi Okanlawon). She soon realizes that Alex is twice the man TJ could ever be to her. Yet she continues to hold on to her ruins of a relationship assumedly because of the time that she has already invested in it. And then things go just as you would expect in this movie up until we arrive at the end.

The three main things mentioned in the start of Love In A Pandemic are the pandemic changes, Bolanle and TJ’s relationship, and then Bolanle’s weight (which she is constantly trying to reduce from start to finish of the movie). Maybe this is the point that required me to suspend belief but why was such a huge point made about weight for a character that was not big by anyone’s standards? Was it just as a method of drawing parallels to most people’s reality during the pandemic? The reality was that it just felt forcefully layered above an already depthless storyline.

Regardless Love in A Pandemic and movies like this are not supposed to be deep. You do not come to it for originality instead you watch it for the emotions that the actors are able to bring to the screen. Unfortunately, in LIAP some combination of directing, writing and acting resulted in a truly uninspired piece of work. The best moments here were the scenes with Deyemi as he appeared to be the only one drawing on real emotions. Teniola Aladese was also a joy to watch in her role despite the inherent annoyingness of the character itself. Teniola plays the role of Uduak, Alex’s ex-fiance, who just barges in to live with him during the pandemic. And despite Alex’s clear disdain for her (and interest in Bolanle), he seems verbally paralyzed to tell her to go back to where she came from in any tone of voice that is half convincing. So in struts our convenient plot device to masquerade around the scenes until her unnecessary moment of glory is used to create a climax to the story. Well, as originally stated, we do not come to this movie for originality and clearly neither do we come to it for inspired writing.

The movie might not stay with you after its over but there is a small chance that the soundtrack will. The original music of the movie lends a thin layer of emotional depth to a movie that would otherwise be run-of-the-mill and forgettable.