REVIEW OF THE MOVIE “FINDING MERCY”
CREDITS
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Title of Movie: Finding Mercy
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Producer: Desmond Elliot
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Director: Desmond Elliot
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Script Writer: Kehinde Odukoya
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Main cast: Blossom Chukujekwu, Uti Nwachukwu, Oyindamola Lanpejo, Desmond Elliot, Rita Dominic
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Locations: Denziot Productions, VTL Stores, Queens way Hospital, Lekki Oxford Hotel.
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Duration of movie: 102 minutes
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Date of Release: October 14, 2013
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Movie Rating: 7/10
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Genre: Drama
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Reviewer: Oyibo Favour 14BE016616
SYNOPSIS
Two friends, Jato (Blossom Chukujekwu) and Rogers (Uti Nwachukwu) went on a robbery operation to a house and found a pregnant woman in the house. While carting away with their goods, the woman went into labour and out of compassion for the woman; Jato decides to carry her to the hospital against the wish of Rogers. The woman dies in the process of giving birth to Mercy (Oyindamola Lanpejo). Jato trains Mercy under his own expenses and she grows up to know and love him (Jato) as her father. Jato later finds out that his boss in his place of work, Daniel Olatunji (Desmond Elliot) is the biological father of Mercy. He is reluctant to give the child back to Mr. Olatunji as he feels his lifetime investment was about to be forcefully taken away from him without his approval. Mr. Olatunji is bent on having his child back and even threatens to send Jato to jail. Will he succeed in getting her back?
ELEMENTS OF PRODUCTION
Lighting:
The visual image was poor, as the screen was blurred and did not give us a clear or perfect view of the different scenes.
Audio:
Kudos should be given to the audio department as they did a good job and we did not need to strain our ears to hear clearly what each speaker was saying but the noise at the background was too much, especially scenes done outside.
Camera Placement:
Medium and Long shots were mainly used and we could catch a view of everything they wanted to show us. The extreme long shot was taken to show a change of setting and introduce the audience to a new setting 10years later.
Below are some shots:
Mid angle
Extreme Long Shot (Ex Ls)
The only irregularity that was observed in the shots was a close shot that was taken of the knob of the door, which was unnecessary as it is known that close shots are mostly taken of things that are of great importance or relevance in the movie.
Set Design:
The set designer did a commendable job as every setting from the home of the characters to the offices was good. The homes especially showed the economic status of the character. Rogers’ house at the beginning of the movie is a perfect description of “face-me- I face you,” then the magnificent houses of Mr. Olatunji, and Jato when he became rich.
Makeup:
For the makeup of the female characters, there was nothing so special that showed professionalism. Also, it was obvious that the beard placed on Mr. Olatunji (Desmond Elliot) was fake; there was no iota of expertise in that aspect.
Costume:
The costumes for the male were pretty alright but there were some errors for that of the female. For Betty, her first day at work, she was putting on skimpy clothes, that didn’t show a serious business-like environment and then when Mercy visited Mr. Olatunji, she was putting on “buba and wrapper,” I am not saying that tying buba and wrapper is wrong, but for that environment, a corporate attire would have been better. Apart from those few lapses, the costumes were satisfactory.
Brand Placement/ Covert Advertising:
The Director, Desmond Elliot deserves a credit in this area. This is necessary as this is not usually done in Nigerian movies, only professionals make use of it and Desmond Elliot did a good job. Several products were advertised in the movie but that of Knorr maggi and Blue band was spectacular. For blue band, Mercy displayed the butter to us and said, “With my blue band and bread, I’m fine,” it demonstrates that she was more comfortable taking her ‘blue band and bread’ than the spicy food of her father’s fiancée. Then when mama Jato asked Ifeoma (Tamara Eteimo) what she put in the food that “make it to smell very, very nice”, her reply was that the Knorr maggi she used gave the food the nice aroma it had; a long shot was even taken of the knorr packet.
REVIEW:
The movie, “Finding Mercy”, is indeed a creative movie, and I must say, I am pleased with what I saw. Mr. Olatunji’s decision about Mercy really took me aback and kept me glued to the screen for some time, it was really innovative on the part of the script writer. It is not like the normal predictable Nigerian movies we get to see and watch. But on a general note, it is noticeable that the Nigerian movie industry is indeed making massive improvement and taking steps to compete with the likes of Hollywood.
The sequential arrangement of the movie is also good. The movie took the linear plot style of “balance, imbalance and balance.” Every new character was brought in, in a stylish and unique manner and we could easily connect them to the movie. We remember Rita’s (Chioma Chukwuka) first appearance when she met Jato at the Supermarket and they started chatting almost immediately, she gave him her card, that was how he got the job which Mr. Olatunji (the biological father of Mercy) was the boss; Betty (Yoko- Ono Manowe) was brought in as the secretary to Kassy, she (Kassy) thought Betty was flirting with Jato, she got angry and went to report to Mr. Olatunji everything she knew about the baby and her dead mother, and that was how the whole secret was blown out.
However, there were some irregularities. In the first scene; we were not enlightened on how the two friends got into the house. This was a major problem because the goods they were about to steal was portrayed as expensive goods, so if that kind of thing was kept in someone’s house, there should have been heavy security that won’t give easy access to the house, that was not shown. That scene just looked as if they were trying to sneak into their home late in the night (that was what I personally thought of when I saw it).
Also, the part when Jato wanted to leave the baby in the car and he was caught by police officers, they asked him what he was doing with a day-old baby and he started crying, the crying did not even look real a bit and they let him go just like that. That scene did not present a good image of the Nigerian Army and depicted them as people who are not smart, and can be easily fooled by fake antics.
We weren’t given an idea of why Rogers went to prison, he just came up from nowhere, and certainly it could not have been because of that robbery because Jato would have gone with him also. Then when he came to visit Jato in his office, he said he came out (prison) last week and he already had an expensive car, how possible is that, at least just a scene before he came to visit Jato would have kept us connected to what was going on.
Then, the scene where Jato confronted Rogers, Rogers said Jato told Kassy that he had been in prison for 10 years when 8 years had already been established as the number of years he spent in prison, the editor didn’t take note of that.
Furthermore, the characters played their roles very well and delivered as expected. However, my favourite characters were Mercy and Mama (Abiola Segun Williams), they acted like professionals- no overacting.
CONCLUSION:
Finding Mercy is one Nigerian movie that is filled with suspense, creativity and laughter, I bet that you will enjoy it if you’ve never watched it before. One major lesson learnt from the movie is that this world is really a small world, whatever you do now will certainly speak later and that is what the Hindus refer to as the Law of Karma, and then don’t forget; “with my blue band and bread, I’m fine.”