Movie Review: Love is War

There is no denying the fact that since Nollywood was launched in 1992 with the release of Living in Bondage, the industry has undergone several iterations. From its early days of simple stories to ritual movies. From the days of the burlap sack costume oddities daubed epic movies to the days of bandwagon movies filmed abroad. There was also the era of comedy and romantic movies all culminating today in what can be described as the New Nollywood.

There are several markers which distinguish New Nollywood from Old Nollywood. Unlike the latter which was driven and controlled by Marketers, you will find mostly actors and other mostly technical industry-types as the drivers of the former. The choice of stories is another marker. Whilst the latter favoured crude and comparatively unsophisticated storylines, the former favours storylines that reflect the sophisticated interests of contemporary reality.

The storyline of Love is War situates itself within the context of the favoured thematic thrust of New Nollywood. A husband and wife team who reflect the success and sophistication of the Nigerian elite class are at the centre of the movie’s storyline.

The wife, Hankuri Phillips (Omoni Oboli) is a serving Minister who has been anointed by the President to be the party’s standard-bearer in an upcoming gubernatorial election in Ondo State. The snag is; she is not the preferred choice of the party stakeholders at the State level for reasons not unconnected with the fact that she is a woman and not an indigene of Ondo State. She is only affiliated to the State by marriage.

The husband, Dimeji Phillips (Richard Mofe-Damijo), a medical doctor, is supportive of his wife until a twist of events has him running for the same office as his wife as the candidate of the opposition party. The movie ostensibly draws its title from what ensues afterwards.

Storyline-wise, the movie goes down a path rarely explored by Nollywood, and one that draws obvious inspiration from the political chicanery of Frank and Claire Underwood in House of Cards. But does it work?

Casting-wise, I felt Omoni Oboli was not the right casting choice for the role of Hankuri Phillips. For a woman able to achieve a ministerial position and ballsy enough to run for Governor in a State she is not indigenous to by birth in Nigeria (whether the real one or a fictional one in a movie), the role required an actor who would exude the required gravitas to match such persona.

Oboli appeared too demure and seemed to lack both gravitas and screen presence to inspire believability that Hankuri had the necessary political savvy required to navigate the murky waters of Nigerian politics especially at the level she was playing in.

Ironically, Shaffy Bello who played Hankuri’s political chaperone in the movie would have been a better casting choice to play Hankuri Phillips. Bello, compared to Oboli, is better gifted with the gravitas, vocal cadence and screen presence to pull off the role and achieve the necessary believability.

Production-wise, the editing seemed rather choppy and too fast paced, it made the movie’s story feel hurried. Transition between some scenes also seemed rather abrupt. The audio was disturbingly grating especially in scenes involving crowd and shouting. I would have attributed this to the acoustics of the cinema hall but I have observed this trend only in Nollywood movies at the cinema and I am therefore inclined to attribute it to the audio quality of Nollywood movies.

New Nollywood may have succeeded in distinguishing itself from Old Nollywood in the instances earlier mentioned above but in the area of in-depth and believable treatment of the subject of its thematic thrust (especially technical themes), it is, sadly, still tethered to Old Nollywood like a siamese twin.

A feature of Nollywood movies I always find off-putting is the rather pedestrian treatment of technical themes in their storylines. There is always an apparent lack of in-depth research which inevitably reflects in the movies by way of poor dialogue, plot twists that come across as lazy cop outs and acting that comes across more as adlibbing, betraying a paucity of intelligent dialogue in the script.

Love is War’s treatment of its political theme betrayed this Achilles heel that continues to plague Nollywood movies for the most part. For one who was a Minister in the Federal Government and now aspiring to be Governor of Ondo State, Hankuri Phillips came across as too politically naïve and unfamiliar with the intricacies of how politics works in Nigeria.

In one scene where she was visiting the incumbent Governor of Ondo State (played by Akin Lewis), she did not know that the man the Governor was imposing on her as her running mate was a serving Commissioner in the State, one time Chairman of a local government area and also one time Chairman of the Association of Local Government Chairmen. How do you play at that level of politics and not know the key players in your political home turf?

In another scene, there was mention of a candidate securing the support of a Teachers Union by donating to the Union’s pension fund or something of the sort. This begs the question: are pension funds sourced from political donations or deductions from workers’ salaries?

The movie’s rather shallow script was also evident in the fact that talented actors like Jide Kosoko, Bimbo Manuel, Femi Branch, Yemi Blaq and Uzo Osimkpa were reduced to no more than bit players whose overall impact in the movie seemed no more than as scene fillers and cheap gags.

This was also the case with Toke Makinwa’s role as the presenter of a television news programme with a rather tabloidy bent in its reportage of the political campaigns, and moderator of the debate between the husband and wife gubernatorial candidates.

There were also continuity gaffes in the movie that checked even more fail boxes. In two different scenes, Dimeji and Hankuri Phillips were shown in bed in, ostensibly, their bedroom at home but both bedrooms were so distinctively different, they could not have been the same bedroom.

Same thing happened again in two other scenes where the couple was shown having dinner supposedly in their dining room at home but both dining rooms looked too distinctively different to be the same dining room.

Then, there was the stadium campaign scene where the couple campaigned to their respective party supporters ostensibly on different days but in both campaigns, the party supporters were all sporting the same blue party T-shirts.

Granted Nigerian politics lacks refinement and sophistication but the pedestrianism of the politics as portrayed in the movie is more reflective of the movie’s failing on account of lack of in-depth research than of the crudity of Nigerian politics.

I dare say that for all its crudity and lack of refinement/sophistication, the intricacy of Nigerian politics possesses a relative refinement and method to its seeming crudity that the movie failed to appreciate. Political horse-trading, for example, is not always done with such whimsical crudity as the movie portrayed.

Billed as a comedy/drama, there was nothing comically funny about its comedy nor theatrically impressive about its drama. It gets love for the relative originality of its political theme but loses the war for its rather pedestrian treatment. 3.5/10