A good thing, it is said, cannot possibly remain hidden or in obscurity forever. In the case of Nollywood actress Nse Ikpe-Etim, this could hardly be truer. Her thespian star continues to grow in such a way that one can no longer ignore her acting prowess or discuss her honestly as a side dish in Nollywood.
Mr. & Mrs. is a romantic drama featuring Nse as Mrs. Kenneth Abah and Benjamin Joseph as her irreverent husband. The movie tells the story of a much-maltreated young woman who decides to repair her lopsided marital relationship with her domineering, class-obsessed husband by seizing a lifeline inadvertently thrown her way by the husband and his overbearing mother.
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THE PLOT UNFOLDS
Susan, a drycleaner’s daughter (well, to the Abahs he is a washman but Susan insists he be called drycleaner) meets and falls in love with Kenneth, the son of a politician, and they eventually get married. Things, however, turn sour as Ken begins to treat Susan with disdain. He even cheats on her blatantly and torments her verbally, reminding her of her “wretched” background.
Once, following a quarrel, he tells her she can leave the marriage if she feels uncomfortable with the state of affairs. His mother (played by Barbara Soky) also encourages him to divorce the “ingrate”. Emotionally-drained, Susan consults a counsellor, Mrs. Brown, a psychologist-cum-lawyer.
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Subsequently, what Ken initially planned as a mere threat to make Susan meeker and more sober quickly grows beyond his control. To the surprise of mother and son, Susan insists she also wants out of the marriage, this coming at a time when Ken’s father is vying for governorship. So, while Ken’s mother wants a divorce, she also craves assurance that no resultant scandal would affect her husband’s chances at the polls. She thus proposes a compromise in which, although the couple would be officially divorced, they must remain in Ken’s house and pretend to still be married until after the election.
Susan gleefully accedes, but Ken, taken aback by her enthusiastic accord, hesitates until his mum and Mrs. Brown cajole him. Under the arrangement, Mrs. An amusing, interesting chain of events follows as, unbeknownst to the Abahs, Susan and Mrs. Brown contrive a mock divorce so that while Ken’s mother is convinced Susan is towing the line she has drawn and a now-regretful Ken lives in fear of losing his dear wife after the election, mother and son are, in reality, merely naïve pawns in Susan’s well-choreographed efforts to get her man back in line.
And for good effect, Susan becomes a seemingly carefree woman, keeping late nights and frequent all-nights. A contrite Ken makes numerous sometimes comical attempts at winning her back, only succeeding when, satisfied she has reformed him enough and now even afraid of losing him if her game goes any farther, Susan accepts his pleas.
SUBTLE HUMOR AND SOCIAL COMMENTARY
Subtle humour abounds in Mr. & Mrs., merging seamlessly with social commentary. Particularly impressive is how the film manages to pass a serious social message in a relaxed, feel-good way while not watering down the quality of the acting or compromising the seriousness of the intended message. Not often are Nigerian films able to achieve this.
Also, the fact that the movie ended in just the one instalment in these days of movies of multiple parts in Nollywood is refreshing indeed.
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CAST AND PERFORMANCES
Also interesting to note is that the movie’s cast does not tick the who’s-who column of acting talent in Nollywood. In fact, apart from Nse, Soky, Benjamin and Thelma Okoduwa who stars as Linda, the rest reads more like a definitive roll call of the obscure with the likes of Linda Nwosu as Mrs. Brown, Paul Apel, Nonye Ike and Beauty Benson.
Mpetla Mpie, an actress of Southern African origin also stars as Monica, Ken’s mistress. Yet, aside from Mpie whose acting was suspect, as well as Apel who looked distinctly uncomfortable in his role as Charles, Linda’s husband, it is an impressive acting shift by every member of the cast although most of them with small roles.
However, the one actor who arguably holds the movie’s plot together not necessarily because of her lead role, is Nse. She simply stands out with her magical screen presence, sophistication and talent-oozing interpretation of her role. Her portrayal of pain and anguish as an enslaved housewife really dazzles and shines through in a convincing manner. And the capable manner she transits from projecting misery and agony as a scorned woman to then depicting a lively, carefree and unabashed, flirtatious ‘self-suffragette’ is really praiseworthy and stands out as a big plus for the movie. Many of Hollywood’s leading ladies may look at her role with a glance of approval.
Also evident in Mr. & Mrs, as in Nse’s many previous acting roles is the calm naturalness in her acting, devoid of the artificial air that one can frequently associate with many contemporary leading ladies in Nollywoood. Nse seems to be able to project passion and emotion of different sort without going overboard or coming short (well, coming too short). Her effortless command of English coupled with her obvious good looks certainly lends more power to her on-screen wow factor, just as her ‘chameleonic’ appearance must be a costumier’s delight as she seems to, with the least make-up and costume change, easily fit into quite a few female roles - single lady, married woman, it-girl, oppressed woman, etc.
DIALOGUE AND CASTING
As for Mr. & Mrs., there are also a few other pluses most notably in the dialogue and diction. The lines involving the three Abahs and the lawyer are wonderful while the exchanges between Susan and Ken are simply divine. It was certainly a big plus to have the linguistic fluency and grammatical control of Soky, Benjamin, Nse and even Okoduwa on board as far as dialogue is concerned. Nse and Benjamin in particular, truly brought their respective lines to life with their articulation.
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The casting of Mpetla is also not without its merits. Casting an actual Southern African complete with that distinct Southern African accent, for a Mosotho (someone from Lesotho) certainly added authenticity to her character as Monica, Ken’s mistress.
MINOR INCONSISTENCIES
However, there is a bit of artistic inconsistency towards the end of the movie. One instance is in the penultimate scene where Susan’s expression of joy on receiving a car gift from her father-in-law after the renewal of her vows with Ken seems over-the-top and completely antithetic to the Susan the viewer is earlier made to recognise - strong-willed, unimpressionable and critical of her father-in-law’s manner of wealth.
FINAL THOUGHTS
In the final analysis though, keeping a few lighting issues with some of the day scenes aside, Mr. & Mrs. is a very watchable movie with an uncomplicated plot as one of its key strengths. It certainly does no harm to Nollywood or the talents of Ikechukwu Onyeka as its director or the movie production abilities of Chinwe Egwuagu. Even more resoundingly, it adds more glow to Nse Ikpe-Etim’s steadily growing star quality.
ADDITIONAL INSIGHTS
Susan (Nse Ikpe Etim) lost her sense of self in her marriage to Ken (Benjamin Joseph). Over the past ten years he verbally abused her and treated her like a slave. When it came time to sign the divorce papers Ken didn’t think she would sign them but she did. In order to avoid a scandal while Ken’s father ran for governor, Ken and Susan agreed to live together as though married until the election was over.
As for Susan, she enjoyed her newfound freedom, got her hair done, and wore sexy dresses. Ken not only became jealous of her new life, he found himself attracted to her again. Actually, Susan knew she had the stage and “worked it” to get her husband back. The backdrop of the story was about the seemingly perfect marriage between Charles and Linda (Paul Apel and Thelma Okudua).
“Mr. & Mrs.” is an excellent piece of writing especially because it shows transition. We saw the stages Ken went through; from being an arrogant a**hole, to dating someone else, to discovering the new woman wasn’t exactly better, and then taking a second look at the wife he gave up. So many movies just jump to the next stage of the story so it was a pleasure to share in the stages that the character experienced. The audience traveled a road of many emotions from pain, sorrow, joy, laughter and relief and this is what makes great drama.
ACTING QUALITY
As far as acting, the performances here were pretty good. It was interesting to watch Joseph Benjamin be so cold and callous toward his wife but we also got to see his vulnerability - nice range. Nse Ikpe-Etim was certainly the standout performance, hands down. She has the talent of making an audience feel whatever it is that she is feeling and she embodied the character effortlessly, as always.
OVERVIEW
Mr and Mrs is one of my favourite Nigerian film. Its was directed by Ikechukwu Onyeka and produced by Chinwe Egwuagu. The plot is based on a couples experiencing different issues within their marriage. The film is mainly based on kenneth Abba (Joseph Benjamin) who feels embarrassed by his wife ( although they have been married for ten years. He treats her as a slave and her duties as a wife is confined to the kitchen. he then decides to divorce his wife, but his plans were dismissed by his mother, because of kenneth’s father pending political election. In the end (Nspe Nkim. his wife looks on as her husband brings his mistress into their marital home. I through enjoyed this film, because it had an excellent storyline. with a lovely surprise at the end. the audience were initially made to believe that Mrs Abba was a weak and submissive housewife until she decides to teach husband a lesson.
The Mise-en-scene helps to illustrate the strained relationship between Mr and Mrs Abba. While, we follow the story through, both characters try to work on their marriage. The film environment slowly starts to improve, taking the audience along and influencing their mood, feeling/emotion. ultimately, this film provides an insight into some of the struggles people face in there marriage. by watching this film, it will be possible to develop a scene in the script which demonstrates to the audience the relationship and connection between Deji and Kemi.
NSE to Joseph Benjamin in front of his mistress: "Look at me! (Points to self) Look at me. I'm the mother of three kids and you say this... this fat thing from Lesotho is stthe thing you want to be my competition? This (points to mistress) is no competition, Ken. It isn't! If this is it...
Story: [4 out of 5] Loved the story… I can’t say much without saying too much or being redundant by providing information already provided in the trailer.
Originality: [4 out of 5] The entire concept of the uber traditional man who expects his wife to be (what I’d like to refer to as) the archaic-before-the-civil-war type is a concept that has been (or should I say, ‘used to be’) everpresent in our Nollywood movies. It might not have been individually explored, as in, it might not have been the main theme of the movie, but it’s still an ever present motif. The story might be about Pete Edochie as an evil chief trying to steal the crown or whatever, but beneath it all there is always that wife going to bring palm wine for the guests, that wife calling out ‘Nna anyi’ (igbo for ‘our father’), that wife bringing out seats, bringing out akpu and ofe onugbu (pounded yam and bitter leaf soup) and coming back to carry the plates afterwards.
Predictability: [3 out of 5] Again… the bad part of movies like this for me is that they have to loose points in predictability.
Directing/Editing: [4 out of 5] Kudos to producer and director and editor or whoever was responsible for making a non-4 part movie. Straight to the point. No unnecessary scenes. Straight to the point.
Acting quality: [3 out of 5] NSE IS PHENOMENAL! I no fit shout. Many-a-scene did I have to pause and just marvel at the extent of her skills. Love Joseph Benjamin, like Majid, he is gradually getting better from scene to scene. Guest appearance by Paul Sambo. All the other people, exempting Barbara Soky, were not entirely torturous but nearly so. Indeed they were mildly capable of acting and if placed in any other movie, would shine beyond compare. But when you’re in a movie with Nsenile then, sorry to say, good is not good enough.
Setting and Costume/Make-Up: [4 out of 5] Wanger!
Soundtrack and Musical Score [4 out of 5] I love how they used an actual celebrity to do the soundtrack of this movie (love J. Martins so I may be a little biased).
Here's a summary table of the key elements of the movie:
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Title | Mr. & Mrs. |
| Genre | Romantic Drama |
| Director | Ikechukwu Onyeka |
| Producers | Chinwe Egwuagu |
| Main Cast | Nse Ikpe-Etim, Benjamin Joseph, Barbara Soky, Thelma Okoduwa |
| Plot Summary | A woman navigates a troubled marriage and orchestrates a clever plan to win back her husband. |
| Themes | Marriage, divorce, social commentary, redemption |
