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After a marketing blitz, it was with a lot of anticipation that
I went to watch the much hyped Ijé, featuring Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola
Jalade-Ekeinde and Ulrich Que.

Warning: spoiler content

The movie begins with Chioma (Nnaji) arriving in Los Angeles to
a hostile immigration reception. After battling her way through, she gets to
her pre-booked hotel and encounters her first disappointment: the hoteliers
have increased their price without notifying her, in a classic hustle. She has
to pay $50 a week more than budgeted.

The next scene introduces Anya (Jalade-Ekeinde), Chioma’s
sister, who is awaiting trial for a triple homicide. She’s the reason why
Chioma, who works in a Nigerian bank, has come to the US. In that first and
rather touching scene, Chioma uses the ruse of freedom of religion to get to
see her sister sans the glass partition. In that scene, we are told Anya’s side
of the story, that she did not kill her husband. She also informs Chioma that
her lawyer had asked her to plea-bargain.

The next day, Chioma goes to the lawyer’s office to speak about
her sister’s case. Anya’s lawyer, Patricia Barone (Anne Carey) has made up her
mind that there is no other way for the matter to progress except by
plea-bargain. She comes across as believing that Anya was actually guilty.
Meanwhile, a chance meeting outside the courtroom with another lawyer shows
Chioma that not all American lawyers are cold blooded. Jalen (Que) has just
been fired for refusing to plea-bargain on behalf of a client, thus losing a
murder trial. His demeanour persuades Chioma to approach him about becoming her
sister’s lawyer.

The build-up to the trial follows with the usual American legal
rigmarole: a prosecution lawyer who sees cases like this as mere statistics to
add to his already bulging belt of convictions, some visits by Chioma to Anya’s
residence, and an introduction to Anya’s neighbour.

As time goes on, it becomes clear that Anya is not exactly
telling the truth about what happened on the night that she killed at least two
men (she admitted to killing two, but not her husband), and the onus is now on
Chioma to find the sixth person that was in the house on that fateful night.

In between all this, there are flashbacks to the sisters’
childhood which, from the background, is somewhere in a village in the north-central
region of Nigeria. Their childhood had all the ingredients of a Cinderella
story: poor girls who were eventually transported to some form of success, but
not before passing through some rough times, most notably a pogrom in the
village that they lived in.

An assessment

The acting in Ijé was excellent. There was not a misplaced
delivery in the entire movie, and the emotions were real. There was also no
shortage of the occasional pun, which showed the oft seen stupidity of life as
a foreigner in Western lands. I found the scene with the Immigrations officer
at the beginning to be a classic, something that Nigerians who have been
through Schipol Airport, especially, should be quite familiar with. Good
directing.

However, the story was way too predictable, and that I found to
be the low point of the movie. Unfortunately, that sort of low point is all
movie long, and one that I could not quite get over. For example, from the
moment that Chioma met Jalen, you could see that they were going to end up in
bed. There was no subtlety about that fact at all, and this was a recurring
theme throughout Ijé. I frequently found myself predicting what would happen in
the next scene with increasing accuracy. Not good at all.

What for me was the most criminal thing that the storytellers
did was the dropped themes. There were at least two themes that could have been
explored in greater depth in Ijé, and all of them were given only a cursory
examination. From the first few scenes, the plot could have developed into a
greater examination of the problems that people from third world countries face
when they travel to the developed world. The discrimination, deprivations and
denials, cue the immigrations officer, the hotel owner, the police and the
reporter.

The second theme that dropped was an exploration of rape in
Nigeria. For me, this was the most important theme. This movie could have, and
should have been a great opportunity to explore the culture of silence in
Nigeria that greets incidents such as female exploitation, and the fact that
many Nigerian immigrants take such attitudes with them to their new countries,
hence Anya’s refusal to tell all of her story at the beginning. How many girls
in Nigeria have been raped and pretended that nothing happened afterwards
because of the stigma that our society attaches to rape victims?

Despite the evidently talented actors on display, Ijé failed to
come out of the trap that a lot of Nigerian films fall into, namely: dwelling
for too long on certain pointless scenes, and as a result running out of the
time required to tell a proper story. After the very excellent ‘The Figurine’
from last year, Ijé was a disappointing step backwards.

Ratings

Standout performance: Diana Yekinni, though she had a very
minor role in the movie. She played the part of a typical African American who
has been processed through the system enough times not to care anymore, with
aplomb.

Nollywood cast: Both Nnaji and Jalade-Ekeinde acquitted
themselves very well in this movie. They fit their roles to perfection and
never put a foot wrong. They are a credit to Nollywood, and I for one would be
proud if all our actors can aspire to lofty performances like these. Aki and
Paw-Paw take note.

American cast: After ‘Through the Glass’ by Stephanie Okereke,
I came to the conclusion that Nigerian movies made in America went to acting
schools out there and picked the bottom of the class. Ije proved me wrong. The
players were all into their roles. For someone who did not do much in the
movie, the performance by the silent jailor was good. I just loved the way she
would interject, “five minutes”.

Naija scenes: Seriously, how stereotypical can you get? This is
not to say that there are no beyond-poor people in Nigeria, but must we always
do that to ourselves? And given that the girls were supposed to be in their
middle 20s to early 30s, you have to wonder when this supposed pogrom took
place. Again, I am tired of African villages always being typecast as idyllic
to Western eyes. Then there is the permanently recurring violence. Even in the
absence of reliable statistics, I would still beat my chest and say that more
people are violently murdered in Compton, Los Angeles, than in Mushin, Lagos,
each day.

Directing: Chineze Anyaene gives a decent quality movie,
especially if you are into going to the movies just for the popcorn.

Story: unfortunately this was a serious letdown. This was way
too dull and predictable for me.

Overall: This movie promised so much, but delivered so little. I will not
watch it a second time, unlike The Figurine, which I am still looking to
download (sorry, buy).