Richard Mofe Damijo, Nse Ikpe Etim, Efe Irele, Seun Akindele, Chiwetelu Agu, Atunyota Akpabome 'AliBaba', Shan George, Blessing Onwukwe, Michael Pankyes John, Emeka Duru.
An epic love story of a young couple's struggles to deal with mental-health issues and societal reactions to this situation. Based on true events, it's a story of strength, love, and determination, laced with humor
1hr 51 min
Izu Ojukwu
Oromena Ajakpovi
Ufuoma Metitiri
2022
Prime video
Beautiful cinematography and soundtrack
Some performances were lacking, some poor effects
‘Four Four Forty Four’ (4.4.44) is a heart breaking true story of enduring love that calls to mind the 2004 American cult classic ‘The Notebook.’ Here, Richard Mofe- Damijo plays Hillary, a man whose wife is rendered psychotic due to lead poisoning and Nse Ikpe Etim is his troubled wife, Theresa. The film’s time setting shifts between late colonial era and early independence. It is a time of hair-threading, of radio sets, of suspenders, and also sadly, of very little knowledge of mental illness. And so Hillary builds a big fenced house, a ‘sanctuary’ , in his own words, for his wife and family, away from the prying and judgemental eyes of the world. It is this house that is, in a way, the film’s pivot, not only because many scenes are shot here, but because of Hillary’s attempt to hold on to it amidst crippling financial crisis that brings government officials to his doorstep over moneys ‘borrowed’ from his community treasury. And so we watch to see just how long he can hang on to his love and to the walls that keep her safe.
The film begins with a voice-over by their teenage daughter, Vero (played by Idonreyin Essien), that is poor in delivery and lacking in content. There is nothing her untrained voice tells us that we cannot already see. The narration neither illuminates nor inspires and the fact that it is done by their daughter as a young girl and not as a reflective older voice makes no sense. Unfortunately, the intrusion is carried on till the very end. There is an attention to detail in recreating the time period, at least to a 21st century eye. The hairdos, automobiles, the old television set, and the house’s interior design are faithful to place and time but the architecture of the city streets; the stone buildings and concrete ground, although old fashioned, are clearly not that of Nigeria at anytime. So when the credits tells us that it is shot in Lebanon, there is no surprise.
RMD puts decent effort into his portrayal of the suffering and struggle of a man who has been made to carry a burden too heavy for him. He sorrows over his broken wife, sweats over his palm oil mill and fights to hold on to faith and family even as the walls close in on him. Although his performance cannot be said to be exceptional, he puts enough into it to evoke the pity of a watcher.
Mental insanity is spontaneity, randomness. It is unpredictable, unteachable, and so the best a film maker can do is cast the very best for the role. And there are few who could have done it better than Nse Ikpe Etim. From the moment she appears on screen, sitting in the grass in her underwear with that empty look in her eyes, that hints at a caged wildness, you can see that the character is put in efficient hands. Her performance in her few lucid, tender moments with RMD is however not as brilliant as in her manic scenes.
The casting of Efe Irele to play her younger version is at least partly, for her slight frame. However, she does too much in trying to sound young. Her words are almost disjointed and her voice modulated in an attempt to sound like a young woman which ends up more like that of a prebuscent girl. This somehow rubs off on Seun Akindele who plays younger Hillary. Perhaps he was chosen for his humour but his too-smiling face and his attempt to match Erele’s infantile air brings his performance almost to the sphere of silliness. The lively strings and light percussion of the soundtrack, the quaint beauty of the house, the lush greenery. The birdsong. Such things are designed to please the senses so that we feel a tenderness not just for the story but also for its telling. Take for instance the scene of the boys tip toeing in synchrony towards the door of their mother’s room and the contrast of the dim flourescnce of her room to the deep yellow glow of the place they stand. Take the scene of the photograph, where Irele stares somberly into the camera, sitted with her hands on her lap while Akindele stands behind her in hat and coat and the lighhearted gaiety of flute and keys as they strike a pose. Or take the scene where the camera zooms in on Lily, their second daughter (played by Achiever Ubani Esse) as she wraps her arms around a pillar, drenched, the patter of rain against the veranda roof, watching as her father holds her mother, both of them weeping in the rain.
But the film is still not devoid of flaws. In the rain scene, RMD’s voice appears to be prerecorded and played over the scene for whatever reason. Even more blatant is the fact that some elements where simply edited into certain scenes like in Akindele’s car ride with his cousin on his return home. And of course that terrible, terrible voice over.
Still, in an industry inundated with comedies and such other fleeting fancies, ‘4.4.44’ deserves praise for aspiring to a deeper level of art and story telling, ignoring of course, that last silly scene where Teni the entertainer and worse; broda shaggi, in his usual comic character, appear for no justifiable reason.