African Movie Review

Shakira (Face of Deceit) ~2009
Story – Macdavies Odikah
Screenplay – Pascal Amanfo
Director – Pascal Amanfo

Starring:
Majid Michael – Richie
Mercy Johnson – Shakira
Ziggy Narteyson – Ansah
Eddie Nartey – Ben
Kofi Adjorlolo – Bobby
Biola Ige – Yvonne
Prince David Osei – Dan
Gavivina Tamakloe – Tom
Luckie E Lawson – Racheal
Micheal Odikah – Karim
Edmond Quarshie – Kwame
Martha Ankomah – Amanda
Dominic Demordzi – Mike
Wendy Mensah – Receptionist

Themes:
Deception
Infidelity

My Rating – 46%

Richie thought that his fiancée Yvonne was the love of his life that is until he discovered that she was having an affair with his boss. Unable to face reality he flees to his brother’s home and spends his nights drinking himself into a stupor at various bars. It is on the way home from a bar that he meets Shakira. It is a dark night and she throws herself in front of his car and orders him to drive. His involvement with Shakira turns into something much more dramatic than he could have ever imagined.

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

This film is in 3 parts. The only reason I can surmise is greed. They did not need three parts to this at all. Much of the movie is watching Richie drinking himself into a stupor at home and in various bars. These scenes were much too long. We do not need to see all of this to deduce that Richie is distraught about his fiancée’s infidelity and using alcohol as an emotional crutch.

The film was really getting a bit boring until Shakira’s appearance. She really woke the film up when she stood up in front of Richie’s jeep in that micro dress, got in the vehicle and screamed, “DRIVE!” Be warned part one is more or less a waste of time and could have been edited down to 15 minutes.

Much has been written/ said about the titillating sexy scenes in this movie. I found it all a bit over staged and fake. At one point we see Shakira supposedly going down on Richie. Now tell me how can you be going down on a man and your head is positioned just below his neck, but yet he is writhing like you are doing something? Nonsense! I didn’t know that men’s genitalia were now growing from their chest areas. And to top it off all you would see is Mercy Johnson’s matted moving wig. NOT SEXY at all!
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So after we have the never ending Richie boozing scenes we now have to contend with Richie “thinking.” It was enough to send me to sleep. I’d nod off and dude would still be “thinking.”

From being cheated on by Yvonne Richie goes on to get involved with Shakira a married woman. I was amazed with the ease in which he got involved with a married woman. Does this show us the power of Shakira’s seduction skills? Or was Richie simply taking heed of his boss’ warning that “All women cheat,” and getting with the program?

Shakira tells Richie that her husband is a rapist. He falls for it but he should have realised that perhaps she was not telling the truth when he gets the opportunity to see/ hear them together. If I were Richie I would be thinking, “Wow he seems quite caring for a rapist.” Every time Richie was at the house their relationship seemed nothing but loving and caring. There was no evidence of maltreatment from him or resentment or fright from her.

One character that was grating on my nerves was Robby’s sister. She was atrocious. Her voice was like listening to someone scratching on a blackboard. She was screeching and shouting the whole time with the bird’s nest weave only adding to the atrocity of the whole situation. The character was a drug addict and the sniffing was waaaaaaaaaaay over the top. WE GET IT… She is a coke head!
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I cannot recommend this film because it was way too slow for my liking. The slow music, the never ending boozing and thinking were making me feel sleepy. I felt insulted that they made the movie into three parts when a lot of it was just unnecessary filler. It did pick up tremendously in part 3. That’s when the drama really started, however it was too little too late.

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