Starring: Joke Silva, Uche Jombo, Yvonne Nelson, Belinda Effah, Alexx Ekubo, Joseph Benjamin

Synopsis:

A woman suffering from alcoholism sees her life parodied through her daughters and makes a surprising confession.

Review:

Rhoda (Joke Silva) is a woman that carried the weight of her past on her shoulders. The day came in which her daughter got married and once again, she got drunk and made a fool of herself. Her daughter, April (Belinda Effah) and her new husband (Alexx Ekubo) took her along to their hotel as a precaution. 

While at the hotel, the supposed cooling off period, Rhoda instead swindled another bottle of liquor to her room. Soon after, April’s older sister arrived and long story short, Rhoda witnessed her covertly flirting with April’s new husband. It struck a chord with Rhoda and brought back some emotional memories. 

Thirty years ago, Rhoda was in a similar situation where her sister was attracted to her husband. The situation ended disastrously and it compelled her to divulge her sordid past to her daughters to prevent history from repeating itself. 

Let’s Talk. This is a story where the past met the present and the main character sought to avoid a cycle of mistakes. She’s a woman that allowed her past to control her and regressed into alcoholism. 

Once again, we have a movie where couples are played too close and one sister was after the other’s husband. As mentioned in prior posts, there are too many Nollywood movies where this line is crossed. People having affairs with the significant other of those that they’re supposed to be close to  – as in their best friend or relative, is soooo TIRED. The movie can be “ejected” for that reason alone but let’s delve in a little more. 

The story set up was slow and captured more curiosity than interest. A general rule of thumb is that a movie should have clear direction in terms of the story within thirty minutes. If the running time is an hour and a half and it takes more than a third of that time to set up the story then the screenplay was probably in need of a rewrite. At thirty-two minutes in, I was still wondering what the movie was about. 

The movie picked up speed when it came to Rhoda’s Pandora’s box which, consisted of many things. Her back-story became front burner and this is where the folly commenced. Here the movie began to lead somewhere but sadly, the past events weren’t gripping enough. 

The movie flirted with the problem of alcoholism but didn’t really offer resolutions. Even after Rhoda cleared her conscience with a confession she still resorted to the bottle. And it’s understood that she was an alcoholic but maybe an attempt to stop drinking would have indicated an inkling growth for the character and a more rounded story. 

The upside is that the casting of the movie was perfection. Uche Jombo played Rhoda at a younger age and her resemblance to the older Rhoda worked really well. Belinda Effah and Alexx Ekubo made such a good couple and the chemistry between them was awesome. 

The movie boasts a star-studded cast but it’s Uche Jombo’s role as young Rhoda that elevated the movie a couple of notches. Her character had the most drama and she simply rocked in the role. 

As for faults and errors, Alexx Ekubo was not acknowledged in the closing credits. As for technical issues, camera direction, sound, and video were adequate. 

The title “Folly” was actually becoming however the movie was just more of the same. Overall, it didn’t offer anything different, profound, or enlightening. EJECT