Miss PJ is a new Nollywood movie about a village that starts witnessing the deaths of virgin girls the moment a female youth corper sets foot in it. However, the positive mindset of the youth corper and her desire to change the lives of the female secondary school students in the village motivates her to unravel the cause of the deaths.
The above synopsis I wrote gives off the vibe of a movie that will be full of rigorous investigations and brain-cracking mysteries. However, Miss PJ is far from that. It seems like an adaptation of a story from a children’s storybook.
Miss PJ stars Bimbo Ademoye as the youth corper named Miss PJ. The movie also stars Sola Sobowale, Ibrahim Chatta, Kunle Afolayan, Charles Okocha, Sani Danja, etc. It was written and directed by James Abinibi.
The acting in the movie is okay, though some of it is too dramatic. The role of the imbecilic schoolboy was not needed, as it didn’t add any layer to the movie’s plot. Charles Okocha did well playing the role of a predator seducing the young and mature ladies of the village. The star of the show, Bimbo Ademoye, did well in her role, especially how she spoke the Yoruba language with Igbo intonation. The movie is mostly in Yoruba and English with some Igbo here and there.
Overall, I think the weak story and character killed the acting in this movie. Some plots were created to knock viewers off balance and from seeing where the movie was headed. For example, two plots made us suspicious of two characters as the culprits behind the deaths of the virgins. The plots involved Fabiyi (Ibrahim Chatta) and John (Charles Okocha). A third plot kept us away from suspecting the guilty party. Left to me, there was no need for the directors to try to involve those plots, especially when they were weak.
Miss PJ lacks a sense of urgency. Even though deaths were happening in the small village, people went about their lives as if nothing was at stake. The movie is supposed to be intriguing with an air of mystery. Sadly, it lacks any of that and left no impact on me.
The cinematography of Miss PJ is awesome. The lighting is good, especially in the daytime scenes. Most of the scenes used natural lights which enhanced the skin tones of the actors. However, the lighting of the night scenes is poor. The blue light used to mimic moonlight looks too fake. The colour grading is really good but not Hollywood standard. The costumes were carefully picked to match the brown and green environment enhanced by the mud houses and green trees in the locations used. I’m impressed with the work done by the colourist. I think the story damaged the quality of the production that made this film.
In terms of production, Miss PJ gets a 6.5/10. But story-wise, it falls below average, getting a 4/10. I can only recommend it to people who don’t have anything else to see.
