Producer: Emem Isong-Misodi
Director: Sobe Charles
Screenplay: Ivie Okujaiye
Cast: Toni Tones, Ivie Okujaiye, Emem Ufot,Kachi Nnochiri,Oma Nnadi
Toni Tone has been on an impressive career roll. While we gear up to watch her in Ebony Life’s “The Royal Hibiscus Hotel,” she has a film out on iRoko TV called “The 5th Floor.”
5th Floor is a film about crumbling wealth. At its center is Ruby Richards (Toni Tones) who has just inherited the CEO position from her ailing father. She arrives the firm to frustrate the workers, classifying them based on the floor they work from and not their names or their positions. Ruby is extremely disrespectful, but when she fires the company’s accountant who has worked with them for 22 years, she meets a match. Shortly after, her father is accused of laundering the company’s money and Ruby is demoted to the position of an intern on the first floor.
The staff working there frustrate her, as she has done them. This humbles Ruby. Soon, they all become friends because the writer mounts Ruby with a hero cape.
The screenwriter makes no effort to give a backstory to Ruby’s rashness or her anger problems. While through a few dialogues, we understand that she is eager to prove that as a young woman, she is capable of handling such a big company, this is not enough. There is continuous effort to portray Ruby’s dead mother as the perfect example of kindness, her father is showcased as being a kindhearted man, so it is difficult to understand where her anger comes from. As soon as she loses the CEO position, the scriptwriter metamorphoses Ruby into a hero. When this begins to happen, the film becomes exceptionally unbelievable. Ruby wants to help a staff with a poor fashion sense make new choices in fashion, she saves another from domestic violence and even helps another with rent. It happens too easy. There is no clear explanation to where her anger comes from and why this is easily coiled.
On the flip side, “5th Floor” features Toni Tones in all her elements; as a beautiful, smart and fashionable woman. This sets her character apart from the others. Toni is absolutely endearing in her role as the mean girl, the first scenes offer the film’s most engaging showing, once we get to the middle, there is a downward spiral.
Emem Ufot, Ivie Okujaiye, Oma Nnadi round up the intriguing cast and while the story is not too strong to get a recommendation. The cast makes for pleasurable viewing.
‘5th Floor’ earns a 5/10
