tw Movie Ticket – Picture Perfect
I must say I was surprised at just how much I expected a lot of cliché’s in this movie…only to be pleasantly disappointed. Written by Biodun Stephen and directed by the acclaimed Tope Alake, ‘Picture perfect’ is a dramatic and somewhat comic movie about a familiar Nigerian situation that buds into a not-so-familiar situation.
A rather ‘affluent’ tailor Kumbi (Mary Njoku) gets into a sticky situation when her car breaks down in a place crawling with thugs. In an attempt to seek help, she reaches out to two men who seem to have other questionable intentions besides helping. Luckily, she is saved by an area boy named Jobe (Bolanle Ninalowo) who offers to watch the car through the night and manages to ward off the troublesome thugs. The plot of the movie truly sets off when Kumbi gratefully rewards her hero with what he considers a paltry sum of two thousand naira the next day. This, of course, angers him.
Jobe, who is determined to get more money, decides to keep Kumbis car till she is willing to offer more. The comic scenes that follow include scenarios where she calls a policeman to confront Jobe but they turn out to be good friends and she ends up doing the very thing she was avoiding in the first place by giving Jobe more money. He later turns a corner of her work compound to a sort of office where he smokes, drinks and plays loud music that irritates Kumbi endlessly. However, her best friend, Kikiola ‘Kiksy’ (Bisola Aiyeola), forms an unlikely bond with the ‘thorn in the flesh’ because of his connection with a good Amala source.
From the funny totality of Jobe’s character to the unravelling of Kumbi’s character, the movie keeps us guessing from the start to the finish. The writer still manages to portray some central themes that teach the viewers lessons on relationships, true friendship, our justice system and many more.
The characterisation was superb; particularly Ninalowo playing the notorious Jobe. If we weren’t a little familiar with his person, you’d think he was picked straight from the slums. How he fit into the personality of his character flawlessly is what makes his movie memorable for me.
However, like every good that exists, there has to be a corresponding bad. At first, the movie started with a few scenes that seemed to jump from one to the other which left me quite confused on what exactly was going on. It was towards the middle that pieces started to fall in place and I could finally follow the story line. I also felt that the writer left a lot of questions unanswered. For example, why did Jobe decide to move his ‘business’ to Kumbi’s territory after they had made some semblance of peace?
Personally, I felt that Kumbi’s character could be acted better although characterisation was good. In all I’d rate the move a 6/10. I won’t mind seeing it again as it was considerably worth my money. For all those planning on watching this movie, it’s not going to be a waste of your money and time. Enjoy!
