Movie Review: Royal Arts Academy’s “Mrs Somebody” Is Feeble & Slow

Kaira, a woman in her mid-thirties, is looking to settle down. As many women in her shoes are wont, she finds herself in a church meeting with an enthusiastic pastor assuring a group of single women marriage through a method that requires taking a step of faith and sowing seeds.

Kaira takes the message literally, buys herself a wedding gown and begins to push so hard that she puts a strain on her relationship and her frustrated boyfriend, Kufre, kicks her out. A year later, she meets and falls for another guy, Dapo, whose aim is to have a baby as his barren wife (Tricia) insists they cannot adopt. When Kaira discovers his plot and the fact that he is married, she is heartbroken and leaves him. Eventually, she gives up the manhunt, and this is when she meets Charles, who is the most unlikely man she would ever be with.

Produced by Emem Isong and Uduak Isong Oguamanam and directed by Tom Robson, Mrs Somebody is a 2012 romantic comedy film by the Royal Arts Academy which casts Uche Jombo as Kaira, Yemi Blaq as Kufre, Kenneth Okolie as Dapo, Belinda Effah as Tricia and Bobby Obodo as Charles. Jombo brings a forceful and very hilarious vibe to the film that would otherwise have been too basic. She portrays well her desperation in the way she tries so hard to charm everyone into giving her what she wants: a ring. She may have overdone it at certain scenes till it is on the verge of losing its believability, but still, she lights up the film

The pastor at the beginning, while attempting to be comical, can’t seem to decide if he should be real or fake, and this kicks off the movie to a very unserious start, one we find hard to recover from. That scene alone goes on for over five minutes; five long minutes of undecidedness that renders us undecided too, wondering if we should go on watching or just take a rain check. When we do recover, we are quickly thrown out of the subplot of Kufre and his mom and adviser friends into Dapo and Tricia’s subplot, which, while we are trying to adjust, are thrown out yet again.

Mrs Somebody has a familiar and interesting but shoddy story, one that seems to have been skimmed over impatiently by the director cum writers. We could give the excuse of not wanting to take too much time, but if there was sufficient time for many chat-with-friends scenes (the type where a character sits around in a bar or in a bedroom and is being advised by a friend for minutes on end), then there should have been time to properly see the subplots through in a way that doesn’t leave the audience parched and lost.

Bobby Obodo is carefree and fun to watch as Charles. The progression of his chemistry with Kaira is slow and enjoyable, until it reaches a point where it’s not. What with the annoying wanna-gonnas and clichéd ‘I can explain, it’s not what you think.’? He attempts to recover his charm at the last scene, but it’s come too late. Kenneth Okolie’s performance is remarkable, but Belinda Effah is so rigid as Tricia that we barely feel him when they act together. Tamara Eteimo is perhaps the only ‘friend’ in this film that acts well; even Morris K. Sesay does terribly.

I would not have done this review justice if I forgot to mention the music by George Nathaniel and Slam. While it sounds very similar to the soundtracks in Lonely Heart and Spotlight, films from the same producer, it still is beautiful to listen to, and almost always in sync with every scene.

Entertaining is a good way to describe Mrs Somebody. Feeble is another way. Combining both descriptions, we would not be wrong to tag it a ‘just there’ film.

Credits: IFE OLUJUYIGBE