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We are indeed defined or shaped by our background and upbringing. Nevertheless, communication is one of the key factors to make for a successful marriage.
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SYNOPSES
This 2023 family drama titled, “Helpmate” follows the story of Mojisola (Blessing Obasi-Nze) and Uche Iyama(Stan Nze), who got married after dating for sometime.
Just a little over their honeymoon phase, Mojisola starts to notice some habits here and there from Uche that she found annoyingly unbearable as time went by.
While Mojisola came from a background that inculcated in her an independent-woman spirit, Uche on the other hand believes that a man is supposed to take care of his family by himself; an ideology he formed growing up and seeing his father’s ordeal.
Things will then get out of hand when Uche loses his job and can no longer manage to foot the entire bills in his household.
Now, whereas, Mojisola is more than happy to shoulder all the responsibilities of the family in the meantime being that she’s financially capable, Uche sees it as a major red flag for "ee-finish”(in his words).
Being on the verge of a marriage breakdown, his friend, Emmanuel(Uzor Arukwe), who holds an opposite perspective about marriage, would then advise the couple to seek therapy.
The question is, will a man like Uche, who appears to be misogynistic and has so much ego, pride, and all be willing to listen to a marriage counselor? What would happen to the marriage? Will Mojisola continue to condone his excesses and unwillingness to accept help?
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MY REVIEW
“Helpmate” was superbly interesting to watch. Absolutely a natural acting performance there! Well, what do you expect when a real-life couple(The Nzes) acts as a couple in a drama!? The interpretation of roles is flawless. This was the first movie I have seen them act together, and they nailed it. Suggest some with both of them in it, if you know any.
moving on
Uzor Arukwe, of course, came with all his elements. Guy was hilarious in some of the scenes. The scene where he said “if my wife did not see me finish, who will see me finish?” made me double over in laughter. What a ‘finished’ man!
What I, however, did not appreciate is the sound quality. The soundtrack interfered too much with the voices, that you can barely hear the characters most times. I wished they had worked on balancing the audio.
I loved how much Moji and Uche both tried to work things out and fight their individual excesses.
No doubt, Uche was absolutely messy around the house and had a really disturbing and terrible ideology about women, Moji too did some things that made Uche upset. Like, trying to fix things around the house without letting her husband know about it.
The thing is, most men do not like it. This is because although your intentions are noble, it makes the man inadvertently feel or appear belittled, somewhat invisible, or disrespected.
As a result, communication is always important as an effective tool in homes and in every sphere of life as a matter of fact. More so, manner of approach matters a great deal.
They did awesomely well in this film as it touches on the heart of many “little little things” that cause big problems in homes. However, I wished they had also shown us some downsides or downtimes in Emmanuel’s home, too. His family was presented as ‘perfect’ and this isn’t so in the real world!
Overall, this is an amazing film. You should see it if you haven’t. I’ll give it a 6.5/10
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I hope that this was interesting to read. Thank you for coming around.
