IROKO MOVIE REVIEW: FOR THE WRONG REASONS

DIRECTOR: ELVIS CHUCKS
WRITER: KUNLE SALAWU
FEATURING: LIZ BENSON, WALE OJO, MARY LAZARUS, VIMBAI MUTINHIRI, ADUNNI ADE, AND IK OGBONNA

What does it take to provide us with believable stories? Does a star-studded movie make a great movie? From Entreat to For the Wrong Reasons, we have seen many stories with many celebrities but we keep asking why. Elvis Chuks assembles a group of celebrities in his new feature film For The Wrong Reasons, the problem is that he does not know what to do with them and so we end up with what we see in For The Wrong Reasons.
For the Wrong Reasons follows different couples that get into relationships for all the wrong reasons. Liz Benson serves as a narrator, serving great words of advice. That is perhaps, the best part of the film until it becomes quite unbearable and it starts to feel like a stage play with a narrator that interrupts whenever the play is getting more exciting. The only difference is that she does not interrupt any excitement in For The Wrong Reasons.
First Chichi ( Chinonso Young) breaks her boyfriend’s (Wale Ojo) heart by coming back from her NYSC with a two month old pregnancy. Ken is so heartbroken by this that it lands him in the hospital where he meets Boma (Adunni Ade). They eventually get married. He is quite insecure, so he questions her every move. What we get is a heartbroken and insecure man that enters another relationship too soon. Chi- Chi eventually marries the father of her child (Daniel K. Daniel) who is jobless and ends up being severely abusive to her.
There is also Chi-Chi’s sister played by Mary Lazarus she is married to Marcus (Eyinna Nwaigwe). Marcus is an addicted gambler and you know how such people end up. It is never a good story. Vimbai Mutinhiri plays Hadiza, who turns down a proposal from her white boyfriend Ben (Chase Leigh) to follow her drug addict hunk (IK Ogbonna) she marries him and eventually becomes a severe addict, unable to live without cocaine. Ben ends up with her friend Tatiana (Kim Sands).
People get married for all the wrong reasons these days and it is one of the main reason we have so many divorce stories and this may be the reason Kunle Salawu decided to make a story out of these problem. Elvis Chuks decides to use so many celebrities to make his story come alive, but does he pass an important message after all? It seems to be a trend with Elvis to assemble celebrities in his films. It may be his best way of getting his stories out there.
The story has a lot of hitches; first of all, most of it is unrealistic despite taking inspiration from real life problems. It goes overboard. For example Ken (Wale Ojo) and Boma (Adunni Ade) how they fall in love is questionable. Do people fall in and out of love so easily? A film has very few minutes to make its point but it does not have to be rushed. That is why it is an art form, by the time the credits roll, the audience should be able to feel some connection because it is believable. How does a man end up in the hospital because of a heartbreak and then meet someone else in the hospital and soon they are in love again and married?
Hadiza’s story is the best attempt to tackle real life problems, assisted by a great performance by Vimbai Mutinhiri. Drug addicts prefer to be around drug addicts, so I can see why she sticks with her drug addict husband. Chi-chi’s story is also relatable, because as a domestic violence victim she chooses to stay with a violent husband, it happens a lot and I applaud the film for taking on Hadiza’s and Chi-Chi’s story, if it focused on that, the film would have been totally incredible, the problem is that there are too many situations that confuse us.
The sound is problematic and also, the cinematography. A star studded flick does not make a beautiful film and this film is able to be good in very few scenes. It is almost like another rushed project that ends up being bigger than the motive behind it and not for the right reasons. Elvis Chuks manages to get the best actors to work with him on new projects, for example in I Come Lagos he gets Nse Ikpe Etim to play a JJC, in a film that leaves us underwhelmed. Now, he features the incredibly talented Wale Ojo. Most of the problem with this project comes from the reluctant actors. While Wale Ojo, Mary Lazarus, Liz Benson and Vimbai give a spectacular performance, the others do nothing at all.