All Shades of Wrong
Cast: Femi Jacobs, Bimbo Ademoye, Funmi Eko, Bolaji Ogunmola.
Director: Biodun Stephen.
Producer: Biodun Stephen.
Pros
Good acting
Good story with a good ending
Very good production quality
Cons
Dull, haphazard pace of the movie. Almost bored me out of my TV set
Pathetic attempt at suspense
Disappointing performance from an A-lister
All Shades of Wrong is a drama from Shutterspeed Projects in collaboration with ROK Studios. You can watch it on Iroko TV.
I know what you’re thinking. All Shades of Wrong is the Nigerian version of Fifty Shades of Grey. Well, you have to watch it to decide for yourself. Meanwhile let’s go to the upside and downside.
Upside
The story told in All Shades of Wrong is good as it touches the hottest topic in our society today – sexual abuse. It is educative and it’s not predictable. At first glance, it looks like a regular Nollywood romance. But as you continue to watch, you discover it’s more complicated than that. The beginning will get your attention. And I also love the ending. If you have seen the movie, you will know that the end is the end. Not like those movies, even the big budget ones, where you will finish watching a movie and you’ll be like, “wait, is that the end?”
The acting is good. The actors’ performances are fine. Some of them are exceptional. Special attention goes to Bimbo Ademoye who does great justice to her role as the female lead. Funmi Eko’s performance as an ignorant impoverished and desperate woman from a South-South village is top of the chain. The woman can act.
The dialogue is real. The diction is perfect. Everything is true to character and true to situations.
The costumes are beautiful. Bimbo Ademoye looks lovely in her off shoulder attires. The locations are beautiful and appropriate to characters and form.
On the technical part, the visual presentation is awesome. The scene transition is smooth. I love the cinematographer’s use of camera movements to tell the story. Again, the audio is clear. Every conversation, sound and picture is perfect.
Downside
The major downside of All Shades of Wrong is its pace. The beginning is great, yes. It’s not easily predictable, yes. And the ending is good, yes. But the pace after the beginning is dull. At some point, I didn’t know the direction the movie was going. In fact, I almost paused it to move on to something else but I’m not the type to start what I cannot finish. The attempt at suspense is clumsy and weak. For me, the movie started at the 86th minute (yeah, I checked) where the pace flowed better and became more interesting. I understand the need to keep the audience guessing what will happen next but you don’t have to bore them out of their minds to achieve it. It’s important to keep the audience glued to their seats to the very end.
Femi Jacobs’ acting is not fluid. He could have done better. As an A-list actor, A-game in his role is not visible. Instead he appears stiff and laid back, like he doesn’t want to outshine others. That’s disappointing coming from an actor of his caliber.
Overall, I rate the movie 7/10. The story is good, educative and not quite predictable. I will definitely watch it again because of the great revelation from the 86th minute.