Glitzy, glamorous, and fast-paced living has been the subject of Nollywood since time immemorial. Usually, it’s to teach a moral lesson along the lines of “all that glitters is not gold”, or something equally cliché. But, recently, shiny scenes are an essential part of storytelling. Better scenes of people living it up than scenes of poverty and hunger that have long plagued the public perception of Africa. But we digress.
Glamour Girls is a Bunmi Ajakaiye film that stars Emma (Sharon Ooja), a down-on-her-luck sex worker who meets Donna (Nse Ikpe-Etim), a madam after she is fired from a strip club when Zeribe (James Gardiner) accuses her of stealing a ring belonging to his employer. When Donna employs Emma as a high-class call girl, we meet Louise (Toke Makinwa), a married woman, who works for Donna to send money to her husband abroad. Helion (Segilola Ogidan), is a spoiled rich girl with drug problems, who only works with Donna for fun. Jemma (Joselyn Dumas) is a former escort who left life to get married but is forced back into it from financial difficulties.
These women have to navigate the high-powered, fast-paced life of glamour that Donna gives them access to and they have to decide if they sink or swim with the sharks. It is a remake of the 1992 classic of the same name.
Caption: Glamour Girls movie trailer. Credit: YouTube
Glamour Girls is very visually appealing. The locations are great, and very luxurious, providing a much-needed mental escape for Nigerians. The costumes and set designs are opulent. Each character is impeccably dressed. Each scene is aesthetically shot. All in all, it is a very visually beautiful film.
The actresses actually did a good job of bringing their parts to life. Yes, Nse has been a bit typecast in Nollywood as the polished, fierce woman in charge with dubious beginnings and unclear motives but it is a part she plays very well. Sharon Ooja as Emma might seem a little familiar if one has watched Oloture, but, again, the part of a slightly crass sex worker is one she excels at. The high point of the movie is the believable chemistry between Jemma and Alexander (Lynxxx) who plays accountant to a cabal of rich men.
Glamour Girls is a mess plot-wise, to be blunt. It started off great with some pretty stellar plot points but missed the mark by a mile somewhere along the line. There are decisions that were made for seemingly no coherent reason. Where on earth did Donna get a second flash drive towards the end? Why on earth did Zeribe do what he did when there was no obvious gain?
Without giving away too many details, the plot holes are not plot holes, they are chasms. There are so many moments like that in the story that drives the audience up the wall. The scene of Helion’s death is so terribly staged that it doesn’t inspire anything other than amusement.
The audio dubbing in some parts of the film is downright terrible. Voices sound like they are being spoken directly into a mic even when the characters are in an open space with the mouths of the actors not even moving in tandem with the words! It sounded a lot like someone took a phone up to the mouth of the actors and asked them to speak while recording.
Glamour Girls is a very pretty film. But Nollywood needs to actually put effort into the storytelling aspect. There are some spots of brilliance but they are so few and far between that the entire two-plus hours of the movie begin to feel like an unnecessary chore.
Ultimately, it isn’t an altogether terrible movie but it has so much potential that is obviously squandered. That is a crying shame.
Glamour Girls is available for viewing on Netflix.
Didi Dan-Asisah is an art enthusiast and critic. She lives in Lagos.
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
