Love triangles and other complicated things: A review

The movie tells the story of a couple separated only a few weeks after their wedding when the husband Ike (Chet Anekwe) travels to the U.S. After five years, his wife back in Nigeria Ifeoma (Sophy Aiida) is still waiting for him to send for her, but, unknown to her, Ike has started a relationship […]

The movie tells the story of a couple separated only a few weeks after their wedding when the husband Ike (Chet Anekwe) travels to the U.S. After five years, his wife back in Nigeria Ifeoma (Sophy Aiida) is still waiting for him to send for her, but, unknown to her, Ike has started a relationship with an American woman, Nikki (Leigh-Ann Rose). Even though he has long since received his green card, he is obviously in no hurry for Ify to join him. When Ify wins the greencard lottery and decides to surprise him for his birthday by flying into New York on the same day that his girlfriend has planned a big party for him, Ike is in for the most stressful birthday of his life.

First, before I attempt an analysis of the story, let me address certain technical aspects. For the most part, the cinematography and sound—often aspects of Nollywood film that could use work—were great. There was a lot of creative camera work and some beautiful shots of New York City. However, what became quickly noticeable were many close-up shots taken without any preceding establishing shots to let us see the surroundings, a pattern that was initially quite disorienting on the huge cinema screen. This is a video editing aesthetic but one that should perhaps be adjusted for the big screen. Now on to the story.

Unwanted Guest, while quite funny, also dramatizes the tragedy of love when one partner is unfaithful and the way women can fool themselves when they are in love. Ify and Nikki build their lover into the ideal man they wish he was. Both women ignore the signs, refusing to believe the evidence of his unfaithfulness, wanting to believe that Ike loves them alone. And both women put up with egregious amounts of inattention and disrespect. The film asks the question: how much can a woman forgive? This is the question that holds the audience in suspense throughout the film. What will Ify and Nikki do when they discover the truth? Will he lose both of them? Which woman is better off at the end?

While certain Nollywood conventions are explored in the “wife”/ “mistress” conflict, no one here is portrayed as a flat villain. Nikki, who does not know that Ike is married, is not the typical wicked mistress, scheming about how to break up her lover’s marriage. Although the birthday celebration she is planning does seem to become more about her than Ike, she clearly loves him and hopes to take their relationship to the next level. Neither is Ike portrayed as a feelingless cheater. I was simultaneously frustrated and charmed by him, identifying with his sister, played with great verve by Triumph Dominion, when she exasperatedly tells him “You have entangled yourself with two good women.”

Ike’s character is explored both in his own actions and in his two alter egos, the saint-like married friend and the single playboy. While not as promiscuous as his single friend, neither is he as faithful to one woman as his married friend, who refuses to go out partying with them because his wife is expecting him at home. Similarly Nikki and Ify are characterized as the same woman on different sides of the Atlantic. Both are loving, but naïve and willing to put up with an innumerable number of lies. The film explores the variety of choices women in their situation can make. But ultimately the exploration of the male character is more successful. While we see Ike’s stress as he runs back and forth between both women, moments where the women could make up their minds are obscured. For example, although there is much build-up to Nikki’s party, where we expect to see how her character handles betrayal, the audience is left disappointed. Similarly, once Ify arrives in America, she seems to engage in little independent action, waiting as much in America for Ike as she had waited for him in Nigeria. While such lack of movement on the part of both women (though Nikki tries a little harder to chase Ike down) works in characterizing them as women who wait, it has the effect of making the audience more sympathetic with the active, though philandering Ike, than his two wronged lovers.

The script and acting may have something to do with this. When Ike and his friends jist in pidgin at an outdoor café in Manhattan, the juxtaposition of language and location adds to their complexity as  hybrid Nigerian-Americans. On the other hand, while Sophy Aiida and Leigh-Ann Rose do a good job of portraying naïve women in love, they both perhaps overdo it a little bit. I found Ify’s character, in particular, flat and uninteresting. We see few of her thoughts, and she is a bit whiny. Ike’s sister, on the other hand comes across as a stronger character than either the wife or the girlfriend, and I loved seeing Triumph Dominion on screen.

The film made tentative attempts at exploring the relationship between African and African American communities in New York, steering clear of some of the egregious stereotypes I’ve seen in other Nigerian films set in America. Stephanie Okereke’s Through the Glass, for example, reproduces racist American rhetoric in portraying the African-American female characters as crazy crack-heads trying milk the American welfare system, in contrast to Okereke’s wholesome Nigerian girl next door. Unwanted Guest does much better in this regard, portraying the community in context with much more variety, including one enjoyable hair salon scene, where both African and African-American women trade stories about men. However, the film is not completely free of stereotypes. Ify is the wholesome Nigerian wife, while Nikki is the African-American mistress willing to contemplate getting pregnant for her lover without any marriage commitment. This combined with the suggestion of Ify’s somewhat random African-American friend in Nigeria that she take a lover while she is waiting on Ike makes it seem like Americans generally have no respect for marriage.

Although I found the end a bit flat, the best part of the film for me was the fast-paced suspense, which was pulled off more skillfully than most other Nigerian films I’ve seen. The audience was left chewing their nails as Nikki and Ify, neither of whom knows the other exists, are set on a collision course. Each time there was a near-meeting between the two women, the Abuja audience responded with laughter and shouting.  I also loved the scene with the quirky New York radio show ‘Guns and Roses’ with the American hosts as cynical New Yorkers at their best.

Overall, while I may have pointed to some flaws here, the experience of watching the film was great. I came out of the theatre feeling like I’d both seen a good show and been given something to think about, a feeling that seemed to be shared by most of the other Abuja audience members, who had gasped and shouted at the screen all the way through. I had chosen to watch Unwanted Guest over the other uninteresting-looking American films that were showing in the same cinema. Not only did I get my money’s worth, I saw in my attraction to the film the potential of Nollywood to challenge Hollywood—even in America.