After a marketing blitz, it was with a lot of anticipation that I went to watch the much hyped Ijé, featuring Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde and Ulrich Que.

A brief summary of the story can be found in NEXT, but if you want to watch it, maybe you should just wait,

An assessment

The acting in Ijé was excellent. There was not a misplaced delivery in the entire movie, and the emotions were real. There was also no shortage of the occasional pun, which showed the oft seen stupidity of life as a foreigner in Western lands. I found the scene with the Immigrations officer at the beginning to be a classic, something that Nigerians who have been through Schipol Airport, especially, should be quite familiar with. Good directing.

However, the story was way too predictable, and that I found to be the low point of the movie. Unfortunately, that sort of low point is all movie long, and one that I could not quite get over. For example, from the moment that Chioma met Jalen, you could see that they were going to end up in bed. There was no subtlety about that fact at all, and this was a recurring theme throughout Ijé. I frequently found myself predicting what would happen in the next scene with increasing accuracy. Not good at all.

What for me was the most criminal thing that the storytellers did was the dropped themes. There were at least two themes that could have been explored in greater depth in Ijé, and all of them were given only a cursory examination. From the first few scenes, the plot could have developed into a greater examination of the problems that people from third world countries face when they travel to the developed world. The discrimination, deprivations and denials, cue the immigrations officer, the hotel owner, the police and the reporter.

The second theme that dropped was an exploration of rape in Nigeria. For me, this was the most important theme. This movie could have, and should have been a great opportunity to explore the culture of silence in Nigeria that greets incidents such as female exploitation, and the fact that many Nigerian immigrants take such attitudes with them to their new countries, hence Anya's refusal to tell all of her story at the beginning. How many girls in Nigeria have been raped and pretended that nothing happened afterwards because of the stigma that our society attaches to rape victims?

Despite the evidently talented actors on display, Ijé failed to come out of the trap that a lot of Nigerian films fall into, namely: dwelling for too long on certain pointless scenes, and as a result running out of the time required to tell a proper story. After the very excellent ‘The Figurine' from last year, Ijé was a disappointing step backwards.

Ratings

Standout performance: Diana Yekinni, though she had a very minor role in the movie. She played the part of a typical African American who has been processed through the system enough times not to care anymore, with aplomb.

Nollywood cast: Both Nnaji and Jalade-Ekeinde acquitted themselves very well in this movie. They fit their roles to perfection and never put a foot wrong. They are a credit to Nollywood, and I for one would be proud if all our actors can aspire to lofty performances like these. Aki and Paw-Paw take note.

American cast: After ‘Through the Glass' by Stephanie Okereke, I came to the conclusion that Nigerian movies made in America went to acting schools out there and picked the bottom of the class. Ije proved me wrong. The players were all into their roles. For someone who did not do much in the movie, the performance by the silent jailor was good. I just loved the way she would interject, "five minutes".

Naija scenes: Seriously, how stereotypical can you get? This is not to say that there are no beyond-poor people in Nigeria, but must we always do that to ourselves? And given that the girls were supposed to be in their middle 20s to early 30s, you have to wonder when this supposed pogrom took place. Again, I am tired of African villages always being typecast as idyllic to Western eyes. Then there is the permanently recurring violence. Even in the absence of reliable statistics, I would still beat my chest and say that more people are violently murdered in Compton, Los Angeles, than in Mushin, Lagos, each day.

Directing: Chineze Anyaene gives a decent quality movie, especially if you are into going to the movies just for the popcorn.

Story: unfortunately this was a serious letdown. This was way too dull and predictable for me.

Overall: This movie promised so much, but delivered so little. I will not watch it a second time, unlike The Figurine, which I am still looking to download (sorry, buy).

When you do get a link to download The Figurine, please let me know

Haven't seen d movie yet but what i can extract 4rm d advertisement i think credit should be given to the brains behind the project .We need innovative and unprecedented movies lyk dis in the nollywood to boost the Nigeria movie industry