“If Tomorrow Never Comes”

YN Productions

Directed by Pascal Amanfo

Ratings 5/10

Reviewed by Vivian Nappier

Trailer Link https:If Tomorrow Never Comes

Based on my rating of 5/10, I understand a lot of people might get mad about that, considering it was a beautiful production with amazing sound and editing. When I watch a movie, I pay serious attention to details, and this is where this production fell completely FLAT.

“If Tomorrow Never Comes” is a fantasy drama about a character, Awurabena (Yvonne Nelson) who recounts her life story to what appears to be a group of journalist in a conference. Awurabena tells the horrid details in flashbacks and present times of how her mother committed suicide out of shame, being sold to a spirit priestess, her escape, giving birth to a child suffering from paralysis and finally being saved by a real shelter home.

Beautiful production value and editing! I am really proud of Ghallywood for stepping up to the plate, and really taking their time to deliver quality over quantity with this movie. Sadly, the story had no complete structure and the production was very lazy with their research.

“If Tomorrow Never Comes” had about 5 parts to the story, of which only one had an actual resolution. One part of the story had to do with the land of the spirits where virgins are sold to a priestess and their job is to fetch water from the river and place in a pot of life. I was left wondering why she was a spirit priestess as nothing was ever shown visually to make me distinguish her from any other human, trying to play Halloween dress up. Also there was the prison shelter owned by same priestess and it was believed to be guarded but yet, Awurabena had the easiest escape from this shelter by simply opening the door at night and running out to the dark and into the city… Really? Second part was the search for Awurabena’s lover, Kay (Deyemi Okanlawan). Awurabena, found her long-lost lover beaten to a pulp at an illegal boxing match by the river bank at night, yet Kay eventually reveals to her that he is an armed robber at night. What was the point, reintroducing the character as a night-time illegal boxer, if you were going to change it to a night-time arm robber? Thirdly, there is the political short story; between an angel and a journalist named Jim (Kweku Elliot). The political story bears no relevance to the movie. The movie starts with Jim communicating with an angel and ends with both. The angel informs him that God is a republican and he is a Democrat…… okay.

It saddens me that Kweku, the child star in the movie, passed away before it was released BUT it also angers me, how lazy and inconsiderate this production was with raising awareness or showing visually, that this child star was the true inspiration behind the movie.

Let’s start with one of the major, unforgiving error. Why is Kweku’s character named “Yvonne’s Child” in the credit instead of “Awurabena’s Child”? So no one thought it was necessary to give this character a name in the movie? Also, where is Kweku’s last name? Why did this production think it was okay to use a child actor without acquiring a last name from his family? If it was to protect the family, is it possible to place the acknowledgement somewhere in the credits? If the child was discovered in The Luckie Lawson Foundation ( found this out on my research) then why wasn’t this listed in the credit? I looked up the foundation and can’t find much info on it and the page is not functioning.

I am hoping the production at some point; will explain why they believed it was okay to discuss such a sensitive subject and illness in some infants as “some kind of Cerebral Malformation?” if you are trying to raise awareness, you should be able to know the exact name of the illness and state it. After researching, I discovered about five types of cerebral malformation and now left wondering which exactly was she referring to? Is it actually a Cerebral Malformation or is it Cerebral Palsy? Because based on personal statements from the director (Pascal Amanfo) of the movie and interviews, it was stated that the child suffered from Cerebral Deformation.

The Producer (Yvonne Nelson) and Director (Pascal Amanfo) both stated that the inspiration behind the movie was the child star (Kweku). In their own words, “I met this child through the @luckielawson foundation and initiative, I decided his story could and should be told. This forms the premises for If Tomorrow Never Comes…

“it is therefore heartrending to note that Kwaku, this said child, 2 weeks after shoot just passed away in an Accra hospital. he required no greater honor than at least living to share a part of his story with the world. GOD bless your hearts @luckielawson..@yvonnenelsongh…Kwaku lives on!!”

And yet, the story was never actually shared! All we got from the movie was “My child suffers from some sort of Cerebral Malformation, he can’t walk or talk” and “My child has received care in Germany” and to top it off, the production did not name the character nor did they bother to credit the child with a last name. How can a movie be about raising awareness on Cerebral Palsy but yet we get no right information on it? How are we supposed to know what illness it is, if the production doesn’t even know? How are we to support the foundation? How do we help the child or family? What exactly was this movie’s focus? Maltreatment of teenagers in the village? The struggle of women? The fight between Republicans and Democrats? Or Cerebral Palsy in infants?

The movie had 1 hour and 43 minutes to deliver brilliance, and yet I left the room wanting more, saddened by the lack of research, and why the writer won’t take risk for her characters and make everything so easy for them. The movie tried really hard to create an ambience of pity but I left in anger and disappointment. In order to fall in love with a character and go through the pain and struggle, I need to visually experience it with the character not sit and listen to the character tell me and show me an easy story of escape.  I also was left pondering why Nollywood and Ghallywood never really pay attention to details and the number one importance of a movie; STORY STRUCTURE.