Family Gbese is a movie that puts family bonds and personal pursuits into a picture directed by Michelle Bello. The plot of the film centres around Nnamdi Nwagba (portrayed by Uzor Arukwe), a successful investment banker who finds himself in a quandary until important situations involving his family and career are addressed. Having an engagement with Yetunde Olopade (portrayed by Lilian Afegbai) who comes from a rich family in Lagos, Nnamdi seems well on his way to winning the future to avoid the poor start of the life he came from. However, the return of his older brother Gozie reminds him that all is not yet Uhuru. This is because his brother owes a gangster a large amount of money, leaving a great burden on Nnamdi.
Mike Ezuruonye spices the character Gozie with a rough charm by showing carelessness, which leads to Nnamdi’s difficult decision of whether to save his career or his brother.
Nnamdi’s tension is further compounded by his fiancée Yetunde (Lilian Afegbai), who is also under pressure from her family. She is the perfect example of high society’s effect, especially through her mother Dolapo (Ireti Doyle).
The movie ensemble is comprised of Muyiwa Ademola, Teniola Aladese, Fathia Balogun, Iretiola Doyle, Adeniyi Johnson, Seun Kentebe, Sandra Okunzuwa, Susan Peters, and Yemi Solade to mention but a few.
The supporting cast made the whole film more diverse, as every character contributed a distinct POV to the narrative in terms of ambition and loyalty to one another. Ayomikun Balogun, a PR executive played by Teni Aladese, displayed some good chemistry with Nnamdi. At some point, I thought a relationship was going to materialise. Aladese’s finely crafted portrayal of Ayomikun makes the character relatable, thus adding another romantic dimension to the movie.
Director M. Bello effectively communicates the contrasting aspects of Lagos. Through the utilization of different visual styles, he was able to show how Nnamdi is torn between two different worlds.
Though Family Gbese dwells on typical family issues such as loyalty, ambition, and societal expectations, it nonetheless demolishes those stereotypes with characters that are skilled and believable, even though some characters were weakly portrayed by some of the actors. Adeniyi Johnson for the role of a thug was a wrong pick because he couldn’t strip himself of his real-life fine boy aura. His mannerisms, while using force to recover the debt owed to him by Gozie, didn’t feel convincing. Also, Nollywood needs to make kissing scenes look good. I found the kissing scenes in this movie irritating instead of romantic, but that’s just me. Nothing pulled my attention in a significant way while seeing this movie.
Family Gbese reeks of poor production, hence the unattractive visuals you will encounter when you see the movie. Some scenes look like they were not White-Balanced during the edit. Others were slightly away from a LOG footage look, not even close to Rec709. This movie is only good for YouTube and should have never been selected for the cinema. It gets a 4/10.
