By Ada Arinze.Script: Kemi Adesoye
Director: Yinka Edwards and Alfred Chai
Producer: Kunle Afolayan
Cast: Wale Ojo, Nse Etim Ikpe, Joke Silva, Lydia Forson
Review: His first movie being the success that it was, I guess it is safe to say that Kunle Afolayan has ‘done it again’ with Phone Swap. The movie was good! You know a movie is good when the audience is pouring out of the hall doubled-over, giggling hard with their friends and wiping tears from their eyes, reliving scenes and making appointments to come watch again. It was almost impossible to watch without choking on your popcorn; it had just the right amount of comedy. It wasn’t dour, it wasn’t slapstick and annoying- it was just right.
The storyline was simple and easy to follow. Mary (Nse Nkpe Etim) is a sweet mannered young tailor who is much depreciated by her boss, and Akin (Wale Ojo) is a polished gentleman with sharp corners who is much disliked in his place of work for not being a team-player. At the airport, whilst Akin is trying to make a meeting that his colleagues have kept secret from him and Mary is hurrying to a family emergency meeting and trying to take in the unfamiliar airport (it was her first time flying), they bump into each other and exchange their identical phones unknowingly. This leads to a destination mix up, as they receive one another’s text regarding a travel destination. Hence, Akin ends up traveling to where Mary is supposed to go and vice versa. Neither knows about the swap until they have reached their opposite destinations and ‘the phone’ isn’t ringing (in Mary’s case) and has ‘no credit’ (In Akins’s case). They decide to help each other out in their different missions using the wealth of information on their phones. The swap exposes them to a whole new world- Mary, to Akin’s mother and her drinking problem, a problem that affected Akin’s childhood and caused a rift between them, and Akin to Mary’s sister and her anger issues. Their hilarious reactions to these different situations made the movie quite credible and even relatable.
I must admit that I had doubts about the success of the movie when I learnt that actor Sam Loco Efe, who was meant to play the role of Mary’s father, died unceremoniously, thereby cutting production short. However, over the last few weeks, the film has gathered reviews from New York Times and Al- jazeera TV and has also received five nominations from the African Movie Academy Awards especially in the category of Best Nigerian Films. Once more, I congratulate Kunle Afolayan on his success.
One last thing- when you go to watch the movie, do not be in a hurry to leave the hall after they roll the credits. You might miss a pleasant surprise.
