Director: Desmond Elliot
Producer: Desmond Elliot
Script: Rita Onwurah
Cast: Nadia Buari, Gbenro Ajibade, David Grey, Alex Ayalogu
Year: 2017
There must be something utterly fascinating about successful women getting pregnant from one night stands, after all in Nollywood the story is always repeated. This is not the first film with this premise and it does not look like the last. There are many more examples, if you scroll through our old reviews, you will find one or more stories featuring successful women getting pregnant from one night stands. The problem with Official Business is not its familiarity but it is bland.
A very successful marketer, Soma (Nadia Buari) steps out to celebrate a very successful deal with her friend. While out, she meets the hunky Greg (Gbenro Ajibade). They get talking, and there is an attraction, when he accompanies her to her car to bid her goodnight, she invites him for a one night stand. The film does not establish if this happens as a result of Nadia’s drunkenness or her need for extra excitement, what we know is that she initiates the act. The next day, she resumes work to find a new colleague, it happens to be Greg. For some reason, they hate the sight of each other, but subsequently Nadia finds out there is a baby in the oven as a result of her careless night, it brings the two together and they end up living happily ever after.
The idea is to market, and make us swoon at this love story. The problem is that this story has made the round one, too many times. There is nothing engaging about the characters, or the dialogue, worse is that the film drags for almost two hours with repeated actions, and very similar dialogue. For a film that we have experienced before, it could have been executed in one hour.
The characters do not offer any kind of pleasure to the viewer. Gbenro Ajibade is quite humorous but the purpose of having him there is to have the male eye candy that swells up the story, for Nadia Buari, she does not offer anything new, and her debut is not strong enough to make us anticipate what she will be doing in the industry now that we have her back.
Official Business is a film that you should avoid and earns a 2/10 from Xplore!
