Sore Heart

Many years after, a rape victim (Funmi – played by Nancy Isime) finds herself still struggling to adjust to the realities of life. She is married to a caring and loving husband, Mide (Kachi Nnochiri), who she is unable to love back due to the scars of her past. She dedicates all her love and emotions to her younger sister, Sade (Belinda Effah), until Sade goes off to NYSC and falls for a man, Akan (Perez Egbi).

At its core, Sore Heart has decent storytelling. The fabric of the storyline is really what keeps anyone going while watching this movie and not so much the performances. After about the halfway point it becomes pretty clear what direction the movie is going towards but even before then it’s still an enjoyable watch. Having said that, the runtime of over two hours was arguably unnecessary. This film could have started and ended in under 120 minutes.

One of the central weaknesses of this film is in performances. Belinda Effah is by far the most capable actor in this film. However, she does have a tendency to over-do things that don’t require that much ‘doing’. She is more tempered than her usual self in Sore Heart, regardless, there are still scattered moments of overacting. Kachi Nnochiri is an actor that I don’t believe has actually even begun to express his potential. He is no Majid Michel but on the other hand he is also no Perez Egbi. That’s to say he is not yet a natural actor, but he is also not as staggered an actor as Perez comes off on screen. Yet, in this movie it appears that he is left to do much of the heavy-lifting and he steps up to the challenge adequately enough.

Nancy Isime as Funmi is honestly the reason I watched this. I was looking for a movie that required her to step out of her usual type roles (See “Superstar” and “Kambili“) and see how she would handle it. Unfortunately, there’s much room for growth still. Nancy’s performance is the difference between a crisp walk versus a person moving the left leg forward then pausing and then moving the right leg forward. Every step is an attempt and the fact that it is an attempt is too obvious to be called fluid acting. Towards the end of the movie she does get a bit better but even that is a miniscule amount.

The directing and production in Sore Heart also leaves a bit to be desired. All this aside though the movie still manages to be a decent watch based solely on the strength of the story which engages you from scene to scene for at least 60% of the film.