Movie Review: When Love Happens Again

Screenwriters: Seyi Babatope and Temitope Bolade

Film Editor: Joe LaRue

Cinematography: Daniel Ehiemen and Danny Valentine

Music: Capital F.E.M.I

Producers: Seyi Babatope and Moses Temitope

Executive Producers: Kene Okwuosa and Kene Mkparu

Director: Seyi Babatope

Cast
Weruche Opia
Udoka Oyeka
Oreka Godis
Enyinna Nwigwe
Jimmy Akinsola
Marie Humbert-Droz
Stanley "FunnyBone" Chibunna
Diana Yekini

Production Studio: PHB Films

Distributor: FilmOne Distribution

Duration: 100 minutes

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Language: English

Date Released: 14th October, 2016

Synopsis

Mo' Bankole Smith and Tobe are now an "item". And Mo' now runs her own events planning business. However, their love is put to test when Mo' is commissioned by billionaire playboy, Lade Adenuga, to  plan a party commemorating the merger of his company Diamond Global, with a food franchise company in Washington D.C. And she eventually travels...to execute the job with her childhood friend, Tseju. Things began to go south when....

Critique 

The Good

As the movie opened up with Mo' posing for the paparazzi, alongside Lade Adenuga; I could feel my eyes widen in awe of the quality of cinematography. The cinematographers sure did an amazing job.

Then I waited,  with bated breath,  to see where the plot was actually leading to. At some point I became a bit impatient, as I felt that there was a bit too much dialogue going on and less action as well as it being a bit slow paced. But as the movie rolled on for more minutes, it picked up pace. And from then on the plot became consistent; as it now balanced dialogue with action, optimally. The screenwriters and the editor obviously take the credit for this one.

The lighting of each scene was near perfection. The hands behind the lighting equipment did a splendid job.

The sound is of Hi-fi quality. I could literally feel the Dolby digital stereo surround kind of sound envelope my ears, as each sound emanated from the film. The sound was, clear and distinct. The sound engineers did a wonderful job.

The Make-up artists did a great job.

The Props were well suited for each scene; kudos to the Production Designer.

Capital F.E.M.I's soundtrack did justice to the movie. The musical scoring was on point too.

Now, the actors that really did it for me in this movie, includes the ever charming Weruche Opia (Mo'), Enyinna Nwigwe (Enyinna), FunnyBone (Alhaji Emeka), Marie Humbert-Droz (Zainab), and Udoka Oyeka (Tobe).

Weruche continued (her top-drawer performance) from where she left off in the prequel...she's good like that! Enyinna clearly enjoyed playing himself. FunnyBone my man! Humorous as usual...didn't disappointed at all.
Marie aptly depicted to the bone, what a confused and heart-broken woman should be like. And Udoka Oyeka proved to me that he wasn't a typecast actor. He showed a vulnerable side to him that fans of his Tinsel character "Tsav" may not have seen before. Nice one, guys!

The Bad

Now, how on earth did Enyinna get a free first class ticket, in these times of recession?! Just how?! Even Tobe was shocked. Lol! Whoever wrote that into the script obviously added excessive curry powder to an already sweet scented stew.

Oreka had a decent performance. However, I felt she could have done better. She didn't bring her "A" game to this one. She was way better than this in the prequel.

Jimmy obviously knew, to a large extent, what his character was all about; he just didn't get enough screen time. I blame that on the screenwriters. Jimmy, however, didn’t effuse the charisma of a playboy. Yes he did...with the billionaire part (the laid back, easy going, smooth talking, suave bloke). But it is one thing to be a billionaire and another to be a billionaire playboy. The x-factor that makes a playboy just wasn't there. Playboys (IMHO) are usually boisterously eccentric and risque.

Diana Yekini had no business being on this film. There wasn’t much for her to do. I also blame that on the screenwriters.

The Ugly

The part where the camera zoomed in and out (severally) on Mo' and Lade, in a rather skewed manner was obviously due to some technical fault, I guess.

The storyline dragged on a bit, at the beginning. There were just too much dialogue and phonë in the air.

Again, the premise on which this movie stands is a rather weak one. It seemed contrived. As every cinephile who saw "When Love Happens", already assumed Mo' and Tobe would eventually become an "item". I honestly wasn't expecting a sequel to "When Love Happens".

Furthermore, some other reviews I came across, complained about how an email would have sufficed in helping Tobe reach Mo', when he lost his phone at the airport. While I would agree partly with them on this, I still feel this faux pas didn't actually do much harm to the film.

Any which way, I no blame these crazy critics shà. Make them go do their own film ná, make I see....

Conclusion

In all, the technical input in this movie is highly commendable.

The performance from most of the actors, was great.

The flaw in the movie was just the premise on which the story's plot was built.

As for me, what I learnt from this feel good flick, is: "never let the woman you love roam in waters where sharks lurk, without being on the look out for her safety".

Like Lade told Tobe in the final scene...: "You were smart to have come".
 

So, if you are looking to enjoy a tastefully done Nollywood movie (though with its quirks), then "When Love Happens again"  is that movie. Go see it. You would like it.

I rate this cool movie, 3/5 stars. Great effort, guys!