KFB Movie Review: ‘The Guest’ is such a time waste….even Rita Dominic and Femi Jacobs couldn’t save it!
For the Newbies, the KFB movie review is an every Friday column that
gives you a cinema guide on which movies to watch and not watch! You can
check out our other reviews (HERE).
Today’s movie for review is The Guest!
Synopsis: ‘The
Guest’ is the story of a passionless but dedicated and faithful couple
who take in an old friend. An affair soon begins between the husband and
the friend, but when she starts to kill off members of his household
who stand in the way of her getting what she wants, the couple realize
that they have it all in each other and that their family is worth
fighting for.
Starring: Rita Dominic, Femi Jacobs, Somkele Idalamah
Review:
There’s currently a
Gold rush to the cinemas by pretenders and ugly ducklings looking to
cash-in on the legacy of beautiful Nollywood triumphs. One such pretender is ‘The Guest’.
Thirty minutes in, it reveals itself;
going from Gold to Rust, in the blink of an eye, never to recover. It
never even tries to recover! In fact, it succeeds only in getting worse;
like a ticking time Bomb, every passing minute is significantly worse
than the last.
Nikki is a washed up deportee from
the United Kingdom with a back story that the film does not bother to
delve into properly. On arriving Lagos, she is taken in by her college
friend, Lola (Somkele Idhalama), a painfully naïve (Read: stupid) small
business owner whose marriage to her dashing hubby Billie (Femi Jacobs)
is beginning to show cracks.
Everyone and their mother knows that
you do not invite your utterly ravishing, perfect skinned friend from
University who happens to have shared some history with your husband in
the past to move in to your home. But Lola is probably the only Nigerian
girl who did not receive this particular nugget from mama. Suffice to
say that she suffers for it. Dearly. Lola ventures out of town on a
business trip and Nikki seizes the opportunity to make her move, thus
setting off a terrible chain of events that only ends in sorrow, tears
and blood.
From the moment Rita Dominic enters
the picture, she seizes control of the film and while she makes some
effort, especially in the first half, adopting a low guttural growl,
wearing impossibly skimpy clothing, cursing like a sailor and trying out
some sexy scenes, her good intentions cannot cover up the films second
half where everything comes crashing down hopelessly.
It feels at some point that both
halves are joined from separate films as the director squanders all of
the good will earned by his likeable actors ab initio on a final act
that is stagey, goes on forever and ends with a fizzle. The
overstretched end alone discredits everything that has come before and
even Rita Dominic falls flat on her face trying too hard to extend an
uninspiring farce. It is a messy outing that has to be seen to be
appreciated. It does Ms Dominic nor Mr Jacobs no service at all.
Sound is an issue for the entire
running time as it plays like the voices were dubbed atop the actors’
performances in some cases and then tapers off to undecipherable levels
in others. The film is bathed in a dark glow that is probably chosen to
accentuate the sombre mood but casts a dark shadow on the film.
The acting is uneven as the
supporting players seem to have come into the film unrehearsed. Chika
Chukwu who was part of the ensemble in The Meeting is overly dramatic and delivers a performance that is incongruous with what real people in her situation should be doing.
Somkele Idhalama who was so effective and alive in last year’s 93 Days
is a shadow of that performance here as she appears lifeless and
uninterested in whatever is happening. Only the recently buffed up Femi
Jacobs shows up for work here and keeps his wits intact while others
lose theirs and the body count begins to pile up.
There is no beating around the bush here. The editing on the film is practically non-existent. The Guest
is far from a decent effort. It suffers from tonal shifts so abrupt and
manages to make a mess out of the characterization, the one element
that could have salvaged it. There’s no saving this one from itself.
Ultimately, accurately; ‘The Guest’ is a two hour flick, whose last hour
and a half is a torturous drivel that ought to be avoided. It will
bring you only pain and regret.
Outrageously stupid! Not recommended.
See trailer (HERE) if you want.
