Movie Review: The Black Book

One of my biggest issues with Nollywood is that in a bid to show its growth, it obsesses itself with the big stuff and ignores the seemingly little stuff.

But more often than not, it doesn't pull off the big stuff convincingly, and the little stuff it ignores then accentuates the unflattering holes in the big stuff.

The Black Book is another example of this. A convoluted story of revenge and political/crime thriller that talked a big game that it doesn't quite pull off.

The razzle dazzle of its grand ambitions are deflated by incongruity, sloppy acting and lazy gaffes, all of which would have been avoided had more attention been paid to the seemingly little stuff.

Right off the bat, the story timeline situates itself in the pandemic year of 2020 (specifically sometime in July 2020 going by the underwater breath holding score tally on the wall) but not a single nose mask is visible on any of the characters or in the multiple street shots to depict period authenticity.

Gaffes are sometimes inevitable but a slew of them in several scenes just suggests sloppiness.

How does a Commissioner of Police address a subordinate officer by a name different from the one the name badge on his uniform identifies him as, and said officer equally responds to a name that's clearly not his?

When acting comes across as acting, it is bad acting. And this is where Nollywood typically sucks. Cases in point: the tropey scenes of microphone-wielding journalists on the field and a politician’s(Patrick Doyle) cringey overacting.

Kudos goes to Richard Mofe-Damijo for some impressive acting as lead protagonist albeit his character designation as "the most dangerous man in the country" came across as more hyperbole than credible fact.

The Black Book talked a big game but its grand efforts, while impressive, are not exactly one for the books. 5.5/10