Single, Married and Complicated

YN Production

Rating 4/10

Reviewed by Vivian Nappier

“Single, Married and Complicated” is a Story, written and directed by Pascal Amanfo, Edited by Okey Benson, and Produced by Yvonne Nelson. The movie is about four friends and their endless relationship dramas.

The movie opens with a lady introducing herself as Ruby, The Narrator (played by TV Presenter; Anita Erskine), explaining the reason why a sequel was made; the attention, box office success and hard work invested in the first movie (Single and Married).

The narrator has a session with a group of ladies, all curious to know what men really want. The women vent their frustrations from giving anything and everything to men only to be degraded, and cheated on.

The real story starts, with the four characters reprising their roles from the first movie.

Yvonne Nelson plays Kimora, married to Jay (Chris Attoh). They play a neutral married couple trying to adjust to the new home they just bought. Trouble raises its ugly head when Kimora informs Jay that her cousin’s best friend from college will be staying with them, while he scouts for location for his film project.

Alexx Ekubo plays Fidel, the nosy filmmaker and best friend, who is overly excited all the time and enjoys frustrating Jay by making him jealous of his bond with Kimora. Jay goes into a spiral of investigation and trust issues with Kimora, from challenging Fidel to a boxing match to promoting his gardener to a spy. This of course puts a strain on the marriage as Jay’s suspicions starts to get the best of him BUT, the truth is eventually revealed at the end, which makes Jay feel ridiculous about his whole mission.

The second story is about Vida (Tana Adelana), who celebrates her divorce by going on a sex vacation with a young lover named Jim (James Gardiner) by the beach.

Vida and Jim, who she takes care of (pay his bills) explains that they need to take a break because of her suspicion of infidelity but she persuades him otherwise. He is also determined to find a job without her help, One day, Jim sister unexpectedly shows up, accusing him of neglecting her and her pregnancy. Jim is upset that his sister won’t have an abortion but the sister pleads for his acceptance. Jim eventually tricks Vida into an oil business investment which she willingly obliges to. He eventually runs away with her money and his sister who is actually his lover.

The third story is about Andy (Eddie Watson) a recovering Casanova in the search for true love. He discloses his problem to a doctor (not sure if it was intended to be a therapist or a real doctor) that his problem is “jumping on and off a boo-ty” yup, I deliberately wrote it as it was pronounced – “A Boo-ty”.  The doctor advises him to open his heart and true love will eventually find him.

The story cuts back to the narrator revealing her trust issue at this point.

Andy decides to go on a date with Mirabel (Eazzy) ( how did they meet?) and tries to impress her the best way he could. He explains he is into import and export of cars. At the end of the date, she invites him into her home but he resist the temptation advising they take it slow. Sadly that comes to an end when Nana, a friend of Mirabel comes to visit and informs Mirabel that he is actually a womanizer and she was one of his victim. The relationship ends abruptly and Andy decides to get back up and try again. He goes back to Mirabel, but this time opens up about who he really is and asks her to one more date. Mirabel decides to give him another chance

The fourth story is about Trish (Berla Mundi) who is introduced at about 50 minutes into the movie, which is way too long for a character introduction in a 1 hour and 51 minutes movie – the character is extremely frustrated from not having sex with her husband for 8 months and decides to venture into role plays. She goes to the extreme with it, from dressing up as a very bossy college student to playing a traditional wife in the village and making her husband dress in a Superman costume.  The husband; Charles (John Dumelo) isn’t really into the fantasy world and eventually informs her that he is no longer sexually attracted to her and will move into the guest room. They eventually settle their differences and have sex for the first time in 8 months with no role play involved.

The narrator pretty much explains her insecurity with men and her belief about no true love.

The story is very repetitive. The exact same plot as the first movie and honestly, I don’t see the point to a sequel.

The movie was ridiculously long. Some scenes dragged on forever and some were unnecessary.  It took a really long time to introduce the fourth characters (Trish and Charles), at that point, I was already zoning out of the entire movie. There wasn’t much of a development to the fourth character which makes it seem like a rushed act by the production. I was left wondering why her husband lost interest in her in the first place. I also felt the resolution to that story was way too easy.

The third character story (Andy and Mirabel) seemed more like random extra scenes thrown in for the sake of prolonging the movie.

The story of Jay and Kimora was such a drag; it was extremely predictable just like the whole movie.

This is a story randomly repeated by different cast, locations and little story twist that are always predictable in Ghallywood.

Production was very impressive, the boom didn’t pay a visit; sound had minor issues but a major improvement from regular Nollywood and Ghallywood movies. The transitions were smooth and flowed easily and the cast all played their roles easily as well.

Once again, the demonstrating and speaking dance, common in Nollywood/Ghallywood played its role again. I had serious issues which are now turning into a pet peeve with some scenes where the actors demonstrated exactly what they were saying while saying it. Stop it! We understand you!

Completely random but I had no idea that “A man can come in 5 minutes if he is wearing a cheap condom!” I am going to research that Ghallywood!

It was definitely a one time watch, if of course you have the energy and time to spare, watching a 1 hour, 51 minutes movie full of repetitive clichés.