A Simple Lie - Is It Worth Paying Money to See?

So I just got back home from watching A Simple Lie - the new Biodun Stephen movie starring Bisola and Kiekie. If you want to know if it's worth paying your money for or if you should wait and see it at home, then let me tell you what I personally think.

Let me say that I am a WRITER. I don't consider myself to be an actor, director, producer, cinematographer, or filmmaker. But what I am is a writer and I have a very good understanding of storytelling. So with this movie review and all other movie reviews I do going forward, my core focus would be on the story of the film and if the story is worth leaving your house to pay between N1,500 - N2,500 depending on where you live.

Without further ado, let's get into it: A SIMPLE LIE: Is It Worth Paying Money For? I'll do a spoiler-free review first, then one with spoilers at the bottom. Let's get into it!

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A SIMPLE LIE SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

Okay, let's take it in steps:

The Actors

Bisola nailed the role. She did a very good job, although I wouldn't say she was the most memorable person for me. That recognition would have to go to Kiekie. The girl KILLED IT! She was so funny and I think because her character was the loudest and most talkative, she really dominated in the movie. She was really good.

Biodun Stephen said she cast Kachi Nnochiri because he has "ashawo eyes" and in this movie, the ashawo eyes really came out. He did a good job as well. So did Emmanuel Ikubese although there was nothing too spectacular about his acting in this. It serviced the role but I won't say he gave a performance that any other actor couldn't have given. Finally Bolaji Ogunmola. I first saw her and really noticed her in Progressive Tailors Club, one of my favorite Nollywood movies of last year. In this one, she's equally as good. She showed range in the performance and overall, she did a solid job. These five people make up the main cast and are the ones we follow for 97% of the film. Blessing Obasi and Biodun Stephen guest star as well and they did well. Blessing brought what Blessing always brings and Biodun too did well in her five seconds on screen. The acting overall was really good.

The Technical Parts of the Film

The film looked like a film made for cinema. It didn't look cheap. The sound was good. The color was good. There was no point I thought to myself as far as production went, why is this in cinema? It is a good film of cinema standard.

The Story

Now this is the koko for me. This is why I watch movies, this is why I read books, it's why I read newspapers. Story is everything to me so on this part I'm really going to dive in.

Spoiler-Free Analysis of The Story

If you've watched The Visit, this is a similar type of story. A number of people in one place revealing secret after secret after secret. Personally I think The Visit did a better job at secret reveals because character traits and character's lives had been well-built so that when truths started to come out, it shocked us as viewers because it went against everything we thought we knew about the characters. This isn't the case for A Simple Lie. No revelation really shocked me or shattered the table in any real way. In fact by like the fourth or fifth secret reveal, I was just like okay, what is the next one going to be? Oh another secret. Okay, next secret. Oh another secret. And the revelations just kept going and not making any real impact as far as I'm concerned. One character would reveal a secret, people would shout about it for like four seconds, then they'll simmer down. Boom another reveal, people shout, simmer down, next one. It went like this till the movie was over. When the movie ended, I just felt like...yeah. It was a good movie. Nothing ground-breaking or phenomenal. Essentially it's a "room and parlor film" meaning that everything is kind of happening in one house. As long as you curb your expectations and go in ready to hear secrets being dropped and nothing more, you'll thoroughly enjoy yourself and leave the movie saying "Well, that was nice."

Story Review With Spoilers

Skip ahead till after the *s if you don't want spoilers.

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Okay, now let's really talk about that story.

My major problem with the story is that the characters almost feel like stick figures. There is the happy couple, the "promiscuous" friend, the main girl that likes the bad boy, and the bad boy. At the end, the major secrets are basically that everybody has slept with everybody in the room. But to me, there are worse secrets than sex. When the entire film is just "oh I fucked him", "oh we never fucked", "actually we fucked", "you two fucked?" When does it get tired? Cuz for me, it got tired fast.

Then the only major non-sexual secret you throw in is that Azeem (Emmanuel's character) hit Donna (Bolaji's character). At first I thought it was a lie Donna had told Xavier (Kachi's character) just to antagonize him against her husband. A decision which would have really done a two-fold job of actually shocking us about the kind of character Donna is and adding an extra layer to the character of Xavier which as is was nothing but 'bad boy trying to take married woman'. I really thought that revelation would shake up the story more but it didn't. What actually happened was Xavier revealed that Azeem hit Donna, everybody was shocked for like a minute, then they just kinda scooted over the issue and moved on. For such a big revelation, it didn't really make any real impact in the movie. It just felt like they wanted to add another secret so they just threw it in there. I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all cuz it was the only big non-sexual secret that was revealed and it was just such a throw-away reveal.

The story to me was too obvious and Biodun Stephen who I love by the way is better than obvious. There were other twists she could have done. She had set up things that could have gone farther. Case and point for me is Donna's pregnancy: the paternity question could have come up and caused for added drama that wouldn't have come out from left-field like a lot of these other revelations did. Why was that character even pregnant now that I think about it. It didn't add anything to the story or seem to even affect characters' actions AT ALL.

Another thing is that these characters did not feel like real people. I don't know about you but if I open the door as a married man and see a woman I've been having sex with while my wife is in the same house, I won't spend the next couple of minutes antagonizing her and telling her to "shut up". Like the way these people were just going off on each other as if each one didn't have dirt on the other. We all know that when you're in the same room with a person that has dirt on you, you don't start saying "oh you stupid girl, I will show you" because we know what they have on us. We just keep our mouth closed, try not to poke the bear and hope everybody goes home as they came. But not these characters. Even at the end when Boma (Bisola's character) out of nowhere tells Fade (Kiekie's character) that she needs to grow up and basically yabs her, WHY? You know this is a girl that talks a lot and you know she's a girl who is keeping your secret, so why would you antagonize her? It felt very much like the writer was just like "we need a way for this to come out" and just manufactured this out-of-nowhere fight to happen for the cancer secret to come out. There were other ways it could have happened. More creative ways.

Ultimately this is my main issue with A Simple Lie, it's that it could have been better. The story could have been stronger. What we have now is a movie that I will forget the details of after about two weeks. It has left no lasting impression on me other than Kiekie is a good actress I want to see more of. But Biodun Stephen, and I love Biodun to death, could have pushed her pen a little bit further. She could have sat with the story a little bit longer. She could have set it all up and done better revelations beyond everybody's fucking. That is so tired. Biodun Stephens can do better. I have watched The Visit, I have watched Ovy's Voice. This could have been a lot better.

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So Should You Pay To See It?

Hmmm. Let me say this:

• You won't feel like you wasted your money if you see this film.
• You will laugh at points in this film.
• You might say one or two "eeeh!"s while you watch.
• I don't know when the movie is getting on streaming platforms so if you're eager to watch and you don't pay to watch it now that it's in cinema, nobody knows when it'll be available to watch online and you might have to wait a long time. Breaded Life is still not out online and I really wish I saw that one when it was in cinema.
• Ultimately, A Simple Lie is not a bad movie. My only critique is that the story could have been better but other than that, it's a good little film to watch and pass the time.

Out of ten, I will give A Simple Lie SEVEN STARS

Let me know your thoughts. Have you watched this movie? Do you agree with me or disagree and think I'm talking nonsense? Let me know all your thoughts by leaving a comment on my Jide Okonjo Facebook post. I can't wait to hear what you think.

That's All.

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