African Movie Review

The Celebrity ~2009
Story – Sylvester Obadige
Screenplay – Uche Jombo
Director – Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen

Starring:
Mike Ezuruonye – Wonderboy Dikeh
Omotola Jalade Ekeinde – Jess
Uche Jombo – Uneka
Ini Edo – Gift
Desmond Elliot – Ike

Themes Explored:
Peer Pressure
The Cult of Celebrity
Relationships
Family Issues

My Rating – 74%

We are privy to the private lives behind very public figures. Jess, Uneka and Ini are best friends who are all having issues with their romantic relationships.

Jess is a TV Personality. On her talk show she gives relationship advice but her own relationship is falling apart She manages to keep this information to herself not even her closest friends believe her relationship with Ike a music producer is rock solid. She maintains this facade by not airing her relationship issues and gossiping about her problems the way that her girlfriends do.

Gift dreams of a big wedding but her boyfriend is non committal and jobless. He claims to be in “business” but is always broke and encourages her to steal form her company to fund him. She has stolen one lot of money and he requests for her to steal more despite the fact that she has not yet paid back the last money she stole.

Uneka is a solicitor dating one of her clients a womanising footballer nicknamed “Wonderboy.” She suffers from low self esteem. Afraid that her boyfriend will leave her for a skinny girl she spends her days in the gym convinced that this will make him stay with her.

*************SPOILERS*************

Family Pressure

Uneka is under pressure from her family to get married. Her mother tells her, about her relationship with Wonderboy,

“You are running around town with that small boy that has not paid your bride price.”

Both Gift and Uneka have younger sisters with their own issues that in turn affect them. Gift’s sister Yemisi is in school and pregnant for a boy that wants nothing to do with her. Uneka’s sister has had a child and abandoned by the man that she had the child for, who fled to Switzerland to live with an oyinbo woman.
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The movie is called The Celebrity, but not all of the couples include celebrities. Both Gift and her boyfriend are non celebrities, but it would have probably been better and made more thematic sense for at least one of them to be in the public eye.

I didn’t even realise that Wonderboy was supposed to be a footballer until half way through the movie, neither did I realise that Uneka was supposed to be his lawyer and that the relationship is supposed to be a secret from the press. This should have been made apparent much earlier.
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Mike’s swagger is superb (Emeka Ike take note!) and he steals the show with his flawless lyricsing in pidgin. He fully immersed himself in the role and played the character perfectly. He has some wickedly funny lines. In one scene he gets caught by Uneka in a hotel room with 3 girls. After she catches him and runs out of the room in disgust he turns to the girls and announces,

“Mess up – well what has happened has happened so let’s finish now,” before diving underneath the duvet.

In another scene close to the end of the movie where Uneka is chastising him in front of Jess he tells her,

“Baby, cool down now. Stop increasing temperature in front of foreigner”

Ini is doing her usual lip licking and squinting. I guess that is her version of “sexy.” I must admit that despite this she had some great emotionally dramatic scenes. We see her go to rescue her sister from having an abortion. You could really feel her combined love and anger, likewise we see her at the hospital again after her sister’s suicide… different emotions but just as powerful.

Omotola was looking radiant. The make up and braids were on point. Her character “owns” Desmond’s at the end of the movie. Even though she wasn’t a particularly likeable character I did enjoy the showdown and almost felt like standing up and giving her a round of applause. She tells him,

“When I’m finished with you, you will pack your things and return to the village to sell chewing gums.”
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The movie ends with the women feeling empowered, after feeling powerless for so long. It was a good way to end. I’d recommend this movie, it was well paced, funny and bought up issues that everybody and anybody can relate to.

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