By Naomi Salami

Drama Title: Here Love Lies

Release Date: 03, March 2023

Runtime: 2 hours 11 mins.

Director: Tope Oshin

Producer: Tope Oshin

Background

The romantic thriller, Here love lies, tells the story of a single mother cum travel blogger, Amanda (played by the director of the movie, Tope Oshin) and how she struggles to find genuine love. The movie highlights the stigma that comes with being single and motherhood. It also unfolds the estranged relationship that ensued between Amanda and her parents who turned their back on her after she became pregnant out of wedlock, a situation which was, years after, worsened by her gullibility for  falling head over heels with a seemingly perfect lover. The saying “not everything that looks precious turns out to be so” repeatedly comes to mind when watching this movie.

The Plot

Shot in Port Harcourt, the movie began with two scenes. In the first scene, we saw the congregation of a Church, observing a communion service, with the officiating priest and a selected few church members as the focal point, while the second scene showed the priest in his home and we could tell that there was a huge elephant in the room at the moment. It was then revealed that one of his daughters (young Amanda, played by Omozele Gabriel) was put in the family way. This unexpected news resulted in the father’s heart attack but that did not stop him from disowning her as soon as he was stable on his hospital bed. The priest went ahead to place a curse on her child, for her refusal to abort the pregnancy.

14 years passed and we saw that Amanda had done really well for herself. She had a successful career but unfortunately, she didn’t seem to be getting much luck when it comes to her love life. But things seemed to take a different turn when she encountered an avid follower of her blog, and they hit it off immediately. They eventually met when she travelled to New York, for a business trip. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, with romantic gestures and incredibly cheesy conversations, but nothing prepared us for how the movies turned out in the end.

 The Casts

It was shocking to see the director of the film, Tope Oshin, taking on the role of a lead character in her own project. It seemed unusual for the director and producer of a movie to immerse herself in a role that required a lot of emotional and mental work. It was not an easy feat to achieve and she deserves a lot of accolades for a job well done. And let’s not forget about the performance of Tina Mba, who played the role of our protagonist’s mother in the movie. Even though she wasn’t given much screen time, her eyes were enough to portray her emotions in the movie and we could tell that she could have added more flavour to the movie, if she was given the chance.

Omozele Gabriel (young Amanda), though not unfamiliar with giving amazing performances on social media as her alias Flora, surprised us on the big screen with her unrecognisable look and acting. The content creator delivered effortlessly and we can’t wait to see her in future Nollywood projects.

Drawbacks

Although the character development of our protagonist was amazing, we can’t help but feel unsettled about the little family time we got from the movie. The movie started amazingly but lost steam along the way when we switched from a cheesy rom-com to a serial killer thriller. This made the movie completely lose its touch and left the audience confused about the main storyline.

The romance between Michael (Tim Shelburne) and Amanda could have been better, it felt a bit bland, especially when their love story started with them being long-distance lovers. The fiery and intense burst of emotions we expected to feel during their first physical encounter was nowhere to be found and that made it seem a bit dull.

 Opinion

Here Love Lies, despite its minor flaws, teaches a valuable lesson about jumping into relationships without getting major facts about your partner. Amanda trusted Michael too quickly and didn’t do her due diligence when it came to knowing more about him. She would have noticed some inconsistencies with his stories and a lot of red flags would have been raised. Her longing for a romantic partner made her jump the gun, but it made her realise that it was time to go back to her family, despite the humiliation she received from them.

Here Love Lies is currently streaming on Netflix and it is a must-watch.

Naomi Salami is a Content Manager with Meiza Nigeria.

Meiza Nigeria