Written by Nnenna Ochiche, directed by Uzo Osimkpa (also starring as Oma), produced by Susan Ogutuga and Executively produced by Omoni Oboli & Tomi Adeoye, is this family comedy-drama titled “To Love & Kabash” with a runtime of 1hour 52minutes.
“By God’s Grace” I’ll try to keep this review as short as possible. Lord, help me. Lol.
ABOUTTHEMOVIE(may include spoilers) 🚨
Tosin ‘Bro. Kabash’ (Eso Dike) is a spirit-filled, Bible-believing, demon-destroying, ‘kabashing’ Christian who believes that everyone else who isn’t doing it his way as per his idea of Christianity is doing it wrong.
Tamara (Ekama Etim-Inyang), on the flip side, is an intelligent, smart, pragmatic, and hands-on working class lady who puts everyone else before herself till she learns the hard way.
Both worlds would under a rather bizarre arrangement meet, and the outcome sees a change of perceptions, philosophies, and an overhaul of ideologies.
At this point, you may want to grab your popcorn and favorite drink, munch, and sip along for a rollercoaster of laughs and drama.
MY THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS
See, while it appeared that Eso Dike may have exaggerated that role as Tosin, especially at the opening scenes of this movie, I want to state that I can somehow relate with the slang used here! Strange, maybe, but yes!
This movie reminds me of this lady who was asked to introduce herself at a cell fellowship, and she started by saying “By God’s Grace, my name is…” Hilarious, right?
Everyone on this project did a fantastic job at interpreting their roles, but my best are Ekama & Uzo (who played Tamara’s friend as Oma).
Uzo dey act abeg and she’s quite versatile! For her diction, I would love to see her in a daughter role alongside Shaffy Bello (if they haven’t been paired already). My oh my!
Ekama gave us reasons why we missed her on our screens. She’s a natural, and she shone brightly here! Gosh! She won’t stop confusing me as per her resemblance with Ego Nwosu I had to constantly remind myself who I was watching here! Can these ladies just act as sisters in a film already!
Wait who’s that happiness girl at the office? Such a Gen-Z-fied individual. She said, “purrrrrr…like…!” But she’s cute, though. And she speaks with an accent (an American brought up, I guess). Love her!
While the picture quality, cinematography, editing, and costumes here were good, props, makeup, hairs, and editing were somewhat flawed. What in the world of disaster decor was that in Femi’s kitchen? Well, one man’s meat, they say is another’s poïson but that actually did my head in the whole time. The color theme…(rolls eyes).
Also, this movie may just have been shot pari passu the executive producer’s recent “Love in Every Word” as I recognised Achalugo’s (Bam Bam) bedroom from that movie being used as Tamara’s here. I know this because of the wardrobe situation.
Now, athough the movie took off on a much more straight to the point manner with a direction that seemed to have been all over the place initially, the story however, at the end of the day came together quite nicely! Nevertheless, for some reason, I feel the plot lacked depth to some extent.
Oma’s character was established as Tamara’s friend. However, her backstory struck me more as an afterthought rather than a compelling part of the story.
Furthermore, it didn’t make much sense that Pastor Emem would employ the services of Tamara to help with Tosin’s troubled love life:
- She wasn’t particularly his mother (well, spiritual mother, maybe)
- Tamara wasn’t exactly a therapist
- It swiftly went from a ‘spiri-koko’ to an amenable young man
- It then became an easy tool for a match making which then made it as predictable as predictable can be
Be that as it may, this was enjoyable and hilarious to watch with some take-home lesson. It highlighted how much you don’t entirely know people till you get closer. I love the fact that there was absolutely no kissing and smooching in this film. You can watch it with kids around (such a breath of fresh air).
There wasn’t any intrigue nor suspense. It’s a comedy-drama. Hence, approach this with some light heartedness, not expecting much. That way, you’ll enjoy the simplicity of the story.
This comes rated at 7.5/10.
Until next time...BYE!