Director: Shittu Taiwo
Cast: Rahama Sadau,Gabriel Afolayan, Adamu Garba, Sophie Alakija
Year of Release: 2023
Streaming: Netflix
The Gist:
Like in The Plan and The Sons of The Caliphate, A Lot Like Love sees Rahama Sadau at the centre of a grand criminal scheme.
But unlike those two films where she helms the schemes, Rahama is the one at the receiving end in A Lot Like Love. She plays Faana, an Abuja heiress who is exploited by her beloved (and might I add) Daddy-approved husband, Abdul( Ibrahim Suleiman). Abdul extorts $500 thousand from Faana by arranging to be kidnapped when they are on their way to a vacation booked for them by Faana’s dad.
What he doesn’t count on however, is Faana’s friends getting involved and thereby complicating matters.
Sadiya, who is Faana’s closest female friend, goes to their home when the couple were a no show at the airport as agreed only to find a distraught but can’t-say-why Faana. In concern, Sadiya reaches out to Mustapha, Faana’s ex but this aggravates the kidnappers more. As Faana placates them, the question of how the kidnappers happen to know exactly what is going on in the house begged to be asked.
Musty’s street smartness to the rescue- his investigation reveals that Abdul is in fact married to Fanaa’s cook, ditto the live updates to the kidnappers. Still, Faana pays the ransom fee and gets Abdul back home safely. Later, she goes through Abdul’s phone and her worst fears are confirmed. She broke it off with him. And that’s the END.
Performance worth watching:
Gabriel Afolayan- he played the role of the street rejected son in law perfectly.
Memorable dialogue:
None.
Our take:
It was a good story that would have been better if it had more depth and a less pedantic ending.
The title already tells us there will be a lot of manipulation but we don’t see enough props from Abdul that makes it believable that anyone would fall for Abdul’s tricks. And for the ending, how can Abdul get off with just “it’s over between us”. He committed at least three grave crimes( Bigamy, deceived Fanna into believing she was infertile and tried to gaslight even when he was caught red handed) and he just gets off like that. Meh.
Come on. Even Karma, as unbothered we claim she is these days, knows to show up for this party. Plus who says you can’t create your own Karma sef? Such blandness.
Our call: Abort mission. If you can, skip it. It will leave you unsatisfied.
