Becky: What do you do during a short break from work? Stay home and just chill; sleep? Watch a movie? Read? Or go hang with friends and see a movie. Well, mine was going to see a movie at the Palms Lekki with my colleague, Adepeju.
I’ve heard so much about the movie, My wife and I, so we thought we should see it and know what the rave was all about.
Adepeju: Well, I enjoy going to the cinema alone but was forced to go see this movie with my colleague. Notwithstanding, I had a swell time. We got in earlier than we imagined and had to wait at the cafeteria. Unable to resist the aroma of the hot snacks, we ordered for some pies.
Becky: Peju must have gotten carried away while savouring the sumptuous taste of the pie that she completely forgot why we were there. I checked my wrist watch and it was past time for the movie.
Adepeju: Not my fault, the pie was heavenly. We flew up the stairs to get tickets, hoping to meet the rest of the movie.
Becky: To our surprise, the movie was yet to start, the time slot assigned was different. You can imagine our excitement when we secured the tickets.
Adepeju: Finally, it was time to see the Almighty ‘My Wife and I’.
Becky: Ok, so body-swapping movies are not new, Hollywood has given us quite a number of those like, ‘the change up, the hot chicks, it’s a boy girl thing etc.’ So it was refreshing to see Nollywood dare to give us something of the sort for the first time.
I was particularly ecstatic because I looove body-swap movies. You are expected to believe the unexpected and they’re hilarious, and being first of its kind in Nollywood I couldn’t resist.
Adepeju: Well, well, to every man, his own taste. I can only relate to body swap themes in novels.Anyway like Becky said, with this being the first in Nigerian movies, we had high expectations.
Becky: For me, I am expecting it to wow us….An hour into the movie, I would rate it 7/10.
Adepeju: Rating the movie 6/10, as a credit to the director Bunmi Ajakaiye. Her directing drove the plot home.
Becky: In summary, My wife and I take us into the lives of Toyosi (Ramsey Nouah) and Ebere (Omoni Oboli) an unhappy couple who have been married for seventeen years and seems tired of staying married and would rather get a divorce. They bicker about everything, anywhere and at any time. While Toyosi is the calm and understanding husband and loved by his children, Ebere, on the other hand, is the strict one and the kids are not close to her because of that…
Adepeju: They’re not tired, the couple are just so used to each other, they’ve been married forever since NYSC, can’t blame them if all the honeymoon juices have dried out,erm back to Becky’s narration, sorry for the interruption.
Becky: As is common in Nigerian families, Ebere’s mum (Ngozi Nwosu) recommends a famous Pastor (Seyi Law) who had a reputation for using unconventional techniques for a counselling session with them.
After the prayer session with the Pastor, the next morning they wake up in each other’s bodies and all hell breaks loose. The story is about them trying to live in each other’s body.
Adepeju: Trust Nigerian movies to have a linear simple plot with no complications at all. We had to rely on a Deux ex Machina(the intervention of divinity) to bail them out. The intervention of the Pastor and his special prayers. Hallelujah, Amen. Overstretching the plot made for a little clumsiness and irritation, your bodies were switched, we get it already.
Becky: Ramsey Nouah and Omoni Oboli are amazing Actors, let’s give them that. So the movie was enjoyable and fun to watch, but the execution I must say, wasn’t all that great. It struggled with believability and precision. I also want to believe that mixing up their names was sort of part of making it seem like they really were switched, but I felt like it wasn’t their place to mix that up though
Best part: The best part of the movie for me, was the fact that Toyosi was consistent with his hip movement while cat walking like a female, LOL, and the scene where Ebere went to the fish farm to transact a business with the Yoruba Lady that almost made her lose the deal because she couldn’t understand the language.
Adepeju: Best part for me: All the minor characters made me laugh, they did not put too much effort in playing their roles, they simply delivered and yet were hilarious, the Yoruba customer, the fish seller interested in Ebere’s husband while at her brother’s shop, the ‘oversabi’ maid of honour. The scenes were greatly delivered with humour.
Watchable or not: All in all ‘My wife and I’ is an entertaining movie that talks about the difficulties in marriage, parenting and inappropriate sexual advances at work place in a hilarious way. It actually makes you think about what it would be like to walk in another person’s shoe. It makes for a good comic relief and considering it’s the first Nollywood body swap movie makes it very watchable.
Directed by Bunmi Ajakaiye and Written by Chinaza Onuzo.
