The Bridge

In one of the first of what is beginning to look like a new Kunle Afolayan trend, singer Chidinma Ekile makes her acting debut in “The Bridge” alongside Demola Adedoyin.

The movie is the story of two intertribal lovers – Dare and Stella – who also happen to be the only children of their respective parents. The only crime these two are guilty of seems to be that they have fallen in love with someone from another tribe. However, despite their parents’ refusal, they resist all the rejections and go ahead and get married.

I am unsure as to whether it is just old age that is worrying me because watching this movie with less romantic eyes truly reveals the foolishness that abounds in the whole thing. Granted, the parents are not necessarily in the right for rejecting the union based on tribal reasons alone, but watching how these two grown adults decide to deal with the closed-mindedness of their respective parents is quite silly. In the scene after Stella’s parents basically laugh off the idea of her marrying a Yoruba man, Dare comes to her and tells her that they must not let ‘these people’ tear them apart after ‘everything they have been through’. And then you sit and wait for the young man to explain all that they have been through and it turns out it’s just a series of illnesses that they’ve supported themselves through – Darling, you can always find someone else to love you through your projectile vomiting. But the silliness doesn’t end there, their next step is to simply pick a friend or two and go to the courthouse to declare themselves married? Yes, it’s a film and it’s meant to be romantic but come on. Not even trying once to reason with the parents after their refusal and then trying to force your marriage down their throats in this Nigerian society is grossly unrealistic.

The story is not where the lack of development begins and ends, it is also profoundly obvious in the performances. Save for Chidinma, this movie has a cast of some very solid nollywood performers. From Tina Mba to everybody’s favorite zaddy Zack Orji, and Demola Adedoyin alongside Ken Erics, there is no apparent dearth of talent. However, for some reason, when all these icons came together for The Bridge, they seem to have left their acting ability at home. No one was particularly terrible, but it was particularly obvious that each could do better. Zack did a well enough job controlling his emotions and portraying the strong igbo father, but what was all that that they reduced Tina Mba to? And Demola? Come on, I’ve seen him do better scenes before breakfast. Chidinma tried her best here but it never went past ‘trying’. So while she attempted to emote, it almost seemed like her range was limited to just one emotion and anything more or any further depth was asking for too much. And maybe this played in a role in the stunted version of Adedoyin that we get in this movie.

One thing The Bridge gets an A-Plus in is cinematography. From scene one, it serenades you with some delicious shots and these shots never lose their intensity throughout the movie. It just becomes a lot harder to appreciate it as strongly when the other aspects of the movie are lacking.

SPOILER AHEAD

And the final nail on the coffin (all pun intended) really was the final scene. At the end, Stella and Dare are dead and after Mama Stella gives this forced speech about tradition being made for man and not the other way around, the ghosts of the two characters rise from their coffin and walk into a golden field…. like it’s 1995 and this is “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge“. It was almost like this was the writer’s way of letting us know that it’s all a big fat joke.