MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Dinner at My Place’ and too much Spice

Dinner at My Place stars Timini Egbuson, Sophie Alakija, and Bisola Aiyeola. Charles Etubiebi and Uche Montana also feature in this 2022 release. Directed by Kevin Luther Apaa, Dinner at My Place shot its way to the top of the box office charts in its debut weekend, the first debuting Nollywood movie to reach those […]

Dinner at My Place stars Timini Egbuson, Sophie Alakija, and Bisola Aiyeola. Charles Etubiebi and Uche Montana also feature in this 2022 release. Directed by Kevin Luther Apaa, Dinner at My Place shot its way to the top of the box office charts in its debut weekend, the first debuting Nollywood movie to reach those heights since November 2021.

Dinner at My Place employs its comedy shtick without sugar-coating. Right from the off, the movie doesn’t fail to let us know what it’s shooting for; dramatic comedy. Even in the early bits, where scenes happen without consequence – and with questionable relevance – the comic sense is there.

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And it is a credit to the acting and dialogue between characters that they sell that. There’s the convincing and humorous awkwardness portrayed by Timini Egbuson, the kind that is most times advertised to us beforehand. So, when he starts portraying those acts, we’re already sold on the genuineness, and we buy into the humour. And there’s a decent support cast of characters to make it work.

For much of the film, ‘Dinner at My Place’ toes the fine line between decent humour and overcooked hysteria. Sometimes scenes drag on, seem a bit repeated and/or unnecessary, and don’t really have that much consequence. Sometimes, the comedy is timely, lands well, and doesn’t overshadow the plot and story of the film. There are moments when it overdoes things, and there are moments when it doesn’t make use of the humorous set ups it gets.

Then when it introduces Bisola Aiyeola in the final part of the first act, it adds a bit of comical spice. At times, the portrayal of her characters as overt and overbearing is a tad too much, and has skid marks of one-dimensional writing, even though it’s a credit to her that she sells it.

Dinner at My Place misses the mark with its third act. There’s the fact that all of what came in its supposed climax was unnecessary, weak, and quite off-putting. There’s also the case that the lazy climax was matched in degree by a rather non-existent and cop-out resolution. But what makes the conclusion much of a downer is how it undermines what came before it.

If most of the earlier parts of Dinner at My Place toes the line between funny and cringe, the third act crosses it completely. Suddenly, it abandons any sense of reason and just dives into something that lacks interest as it does necessity, and even the decent humour that came before simply descends into farce. Suddenly, we go from funny to laughable, this final act also paints a rather terrible picture of the movie as a whole. It’s ironic how, for a landing that was very much unnecessary, and pretty much inconsequential, it can’t be divorced from the entire movie as a whole.

Dinner at My Place has quite a decent concept, if not necessarily premise, and looked to be using its strengths for much of its runtime, and it doesn’t really hold back, on the humour or the gore. The issue is how it suddenly takes its foot off the gas in the final act and goes from ‘arguably forgettable comedy’ to ‘trite farce’.

Cast: Bisola Aiyeola as Bisi; Sophie Alakija as Chioma; Timini Egbuson as Nonso; Charles Etubiebi as Jay; Debby Felix; Uche Nwaefuna as Cynthia; Michael Sani; Olayemi Solade.

Culled from sodasandpopcorn.ng