A Perfect Day
- NollyChecker
- Jul 25, 2020
- 4 min read
SHOWED ON ROK DSTV CHANNEL 168 ON 21ST JULY 2020
67 MINS LONG
STARRING MUNACHI ABII, ALEX EKUBO AND AYOOLA AYOLOLA
RATING: 24% (BY ROK)
“A Perfect Day” starts off as a very simple movie about a day in the life of Joy (Munachi Abii). By virtue of this it is not expected to be a complex story and it really wasn’t. The producer tried to keep Joy’s 'bad luck' within the bounds of simple day to day survivable situations.
Joy’s day starts off with great promise after a phone call from her boyfriend to go on a dinner date later on in the evening. Everything begins to go south immediately she steps out of her house to go to work. A series of accidents and unfortunate events befall her at every turn throughout the day starting with an unresponsive car. The better part of her ‘bad’ day was spent in the office where she suffered her boss’ anger for coming late to work, gets water spilled on her white shirt and had a massive workload to deal with.
The series of ill-luck did little to reduce her ‘slay’ appeal though as she manages to stay unruffled and un-rumpled for most of the day EXCEPT for that one instance at the dry cleaners’ where she losses her cool over having her cloth burnt by the laundry staff.
The restaurant scene which is supposed to be the high point of her day and make it all worthwhile left so many loopholes. Spiced with scenarios of a flirtatious waiter, her long wait for her boyfriend to show up, a wardrobe malfunction and finally the arrival of her boyfriend Ovundah (Ayoola Ayolola). The wardrobe malfunction occurred in the restroom. The only indication of a wardrobe malfunction is that the off-shoulder dress she was wearing was now a bit lower off her shoulder.
Not once does the viewer see exactly what the problem is. I mean they dare not sacrifice that beautiful dress just to make a story more believable. In an almost empty restaurant in which the only two people we had seen prior to Joy going into the restaurant was Joy and the waiter, it is hard to understand Joy’s slow, unsteady and embarrassed walk back to her table. You wonder who she is hiding from. If her embarrassment was going to be believable, the production crew should have ‘peopled-up’ the restaurant with a sizeable number of people whose main preoccupation in life is to be on the look-out for wardrobe malfunctions especially since the dress tears at a very fortunate place – at the back.
When Ovundah finally arrives at the restaurant after keeping her waiting for quite a while, his ‘hey gorgeous’ greeting is followed with a hearty kiss. Joys face lights up as he sits down, signals the waiter and places an order. Not once either before or after they both enjoy their sumptuous meal does Ovundah’s mood show the fact that he is about to break up with her.
So who invites a woman to a posh restaurant, treats her to a delicious meal and then tells her that he was leaving her and all the while her replacement is patiently sitting in his car out in the car park waiting for him. Maybe someone who wants to give her something to remember him by. If the point was to drive in the point that she was having a day from hell – the entire idea does not come off convincing enough not even for story-telling purposes. Apart from creating the opportunity for Joy to meet Alex Ekubo, there was no compelling reason for the restaurant scene.
The coup-de-grace of the movie was Alex Ekubo starring as Alex Ekubo and stepping up to talk her out of her distress after Ovundah publicly breaks up with her. He consoles her, escorts her out of the restaurant and the film is left open-ended as he walks her to the car park. Even the 'open-endingness' leaves the feeling that they ran out of film rather than that you are left to draw your own conclusions as to what transpires afterwards.
If the producers wanted to evoke sympathy for Joy’s character as harassed and stressed, I am not sure of the level of success. To start with when her colleague in the office spills water on her white blouse, she was able to blow dry the blouse and he further makes up for it by bringing her food which from all indication she thoroughly enjoyed while sorting through work. Her over bearing boss concedes and lets her go when she tearfully and quite vaguely talks about a sick relative. When her colleagues wife mistakenly accuses her of being his mistress and attacks her at a filling station, two good Samaritans were on standby to quickly rescue her from a potential disgrace and to crown it all, when her boyfriend calls off their relationship at the restaurant, she meets a superstar ( Alex Ekubo) to console her. Seemed like a day bad luck wanted to accost her but good luck would not let it happen.
Munachi’s performance did little to capture or captivate the imagination of the viewer. You don’t feel sorry for her. She manages to stay well put together throughout. It didn’t look like she particularly had any strong feelings for her boyfriend apart from the prospect of transforming from a girlfriend to a fiancée. Not once while waiting for him to show up at the restaurant does she place a call to find out if he is fine. She seemed contented to wait and enjoy the waiters open adoration.
On this note this film plays into the narrative in most Nollywood movies that once a girl is of a certain age she becomes desperate to marry and that desperation is so overwhelming that she only cares to get a ring on her finger even if it is the devil himself that would be placing the ring on that finger. It doesn’t matter if he is meaningfully engaged in a business, has a job, or possesses any qualities that would make a woman want to spend the rest of her life with him.
Have you seen the movie, what do you think? Please feel free to drop your comment and rate the movie to help other viewers.
And if you haven't seen it, its airing on Wednesday, 29th of July, 2020 on DSTV Channel 168 ROK.
Thanks for reading guys, stay tuned for the next one!
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