MOVIE REVIEW: DID THE MOVIE PICTURE PERFECT GIVE THE PERFECT PICTURE?

A Review Of Biodun Stephen’s Movie Picture Perfect.

Today, I will be giving you my honest review of the movie that got tongues wagging when it came out a few months ago. I know this review is coming late but hey it’s better late than never to know if the tongues wagged ugly or good.

The movie picture perfect was written and produced by Biodun Stephens and directed by Tope Alake. The movie featured Bolanle Ninalowo as Jobe, Mary Remy-Njoku as Kunbi, Bisola Aiyeola and a few others. This movie did not have a heavy cast but the few it had gave the movie a somewhat perfect picture.

In reviewing this film, I am going to examine

• The Storyline/plot
• Cinematography/music
• Costume/ set design
• Acting: casting and delivery
• Directing

THE STORY LINE OF THE MOVIE PICTURE PERFECT.

The story revolves around Kunbi, a Fashion designer who runs into a pair of touts after her car breaks down. She is however saved by another tout (jobe) who surprisingly comes to her succour, saves her from the other touts and ensures she leaves to safety while he watches over her car.

The next day, in a sudden reversal, kunbi and Jobe become “rivals” when she refuses to settle him properly for watching over her car. Jobe decides to station in front of Kunbi’s store and for most part of the movie they are at each others throat until they realize they were childhood acquaintances.

A fast friendship develops from there, eventually leading to one night of heart breaks, candid conversations, drinks and sex. The next morning after being hit by realisation, Kunbi avoids Jobe like a plague. Things worsen when she finds out she is pregnant for Jobe.

She resolves to keep him out of the loop and away from her child’s life as he doesn’t fit into her perfect picture of a husband-father figure. Jobe on the other hand tries to prove that he deserves a spot in the life of his child. He struggles to convince Kunbi that he may not be picture perfect but he deserves to be a father to his child.

He eventually gives up his old ways for a reformed and more composed man. All these culminated to an ending that elicited laughter, tears and most importantly a lesson learnt that the picture doesn’t have to be perfect for it to work just fine!.

This script gets a whooping 7.0 from me

Kudos to Biodun Stephens I love the story line of this movie. However there were a few glitches such as having no cogent explanation for why her car broke down on the road, no the flimsy story by the mechanic that it was a wire and Kunbi’s repetition of “oh that wire” was not sufficient. #rolleyestilltheydrop.

There was no established story of the car having issues before then so why try to play on our intelligence. They should have provided a good reason the car broke down or even make it seem like the touts set it up by putting glass or sharp objects on the road that punctured the tire. This would have explained why the car stopped and been a good reason as to why the touts were hanging around waiting for an unfortunate victim to harass.

As usual with most Nigerian script, excluding the hero and heroine, no other character was properly developed.

I absolutely love the ending of this movie

Towards the end of the movie after Kunbi gave Jobe a total rundown, I became frantic. I am an avid Nollywood movie watcher and trust me when I say I can second guess every occurrence from start to finish in most movies. With a few exceptions.

I wondered how the script writer was going to tweak the script so we don’t hate kunbi and so many scenarios but nothing, I repeat nothing prepared me for the end. The sudden reversal of fortune on the part of the hero was simply edifying and Kunbi’s acceptance couldn’t have been better portrayed than in those few words “se o ti jeun? Kosi Amala but semo wa”. It was unexpected, it was an original and that statement was pivotal because it showed she had accepted him in his amala eating- uneducated- imperfect- self.

I am more than impressed with the story.

Cinematography and Music

Cinematography was okay and music was barely there. I give cinematography a 5.8 out of 10 and music 3/10.

Costume and set design

Well considering this movie was centered around the life of a Fashion designer, I don’t think they did a great job with the costumes. They could have shown us that kunbi has great fashion sense but we didn’t see any with her costumes or that of her friend. However, I loved Jobe’s costumes, makeup and props. They did a great job with his character.

The set design was basic, they could have added more life to Kunbi’s store. I give costume and set design 4/10

Acting: Casting and Delivery

The casting in this movie was good. The character who did it for me was Jobe. Whosoever did the casting for the character Jobe did a great job.

When it comes to acting though, they were not very consistent with delivery.

Bolanle Ninalowo as Jobe: who knew he had such great acting skills? Definitely not me, at least until I watched this movie. Bolanle delivered this role effortlessly. This just goes to show that some actors just need a great/challenging role to showcase their acting prowess. Because I have seen Bolanle act as “A fine boy with britico accent” severally and until I watched this movie I never considered him a good actor. The way he embodied the role, his accent, his gesticulations, slangs such as filandra, jobeski etc were all on point.

I only have one advice for Bolanle and it goes thus;

Mary Remy-Njoku: Brought her A game in this movie. However she wasn’t so consistent in her delivery. Her switch from prim to local at different intervals were not seamless. I noticed the glitch but asides from that, she did well.

Bisola Aiyeola: Ah! Bisola who did this to you? How could they carry such a brilliant actress and use as a pawn. I say brilliant actress because I have watched you times without number on skinny girl in transit deliver effortlessly. I have watched your great performance in Ovys voice. So when I saw that the writer and director didn’t give you the chance to be “great”, I was pained. There was no character development in your part, you just served as Kunbi’s plus one and nothing else.

Other actors in this movie includes ronke Oshodi whose role was too comical to actually make sense.

Directing

I think the director did a great job as this movie moved from one distinct point to the other without wasting a lot of our time with unnecessary conversations and scenes. The director also seamlessly interpreted the story and I absolutely love it.

Final verdict

The movie picture perfect was almost a perfect picture. I enjoyed watching it, I loved how it wasn’t just any story but one that teaches us about love, class struggles, positive effects of kids on parents and the need/availability for self-improvement.

The ending of this movie was top-notch and I loved every bit of it.

At the end of this movie, I was already shedding tears because Jobe now Jaiyeola really drew the audience in with his “I am a changed man” speech but the tears were nothing compared to the loud, heartfelt  laughter that ripped out of my mouth the moment he named the baby Jobestina.

Overall I give this movie a 7.8/10.

You can watch this movie on Iroko Tv.

Have you watched this movie? Who was your favourite character? Mine was Jobe what about you?. let me know in the comment section below.