Movie review: ‘Turning Point’ is a rough cut of a potentially intriguing film

by Wilfred Okiche

Turning Point movie poster

Another year, another ‘’Nollywood-Hollywood’ collaboration arrives.  And how we’ve come to dread them.

A long time ago, film lovers jumped excitedly at the mere thought of Hollywood talent stooping from their lofty perch to mingle with the brightest of our local talent. It didn’t even matter then that the Americanahs were mostly guys on the lower rungs of Tinseltown’s food chain and some of them hadn’t gotten decent work in ages. As the years went by, for every single critical hit like ‘Anchor baby’ that arrived, duds like ‘Doctor Bello’ followed in much-hyped succession . More ‘local’ films brought in fine returns at the box-office, home girl Genevieve Nnaji appeared on CNN, Omotola on the influential #Time100 list and the New York Times crowned director Kunle Afolayan ‘’a Scorcese in Lagos.’’

Oh! Yes we were getting into our own.

So when some hotshot producer makes a new movie and casts Patience Ozokwor, Jackie Appiah and Oge Okoye alongside some unpopular Hollywood folk, permit us not to be wowed. See we’ve been there before.

‘Turning point’ as directed by Niyi Towolawi tells a cluttered story. Of betrayal, treachery and come uppances. It is a love story sometimes, melodrama in places, parlays social commentary in bits and attempts some action scenes before the curtain call. Of course, none of these quite work out as intended.

Ade (Igoni Archibong) is an upwardly mobile Nigerian living in America. He works as an investment banker and is dating the boss’s daughter Stacey (K.D Aubert). It takes the next few minutes to establish that something about this couple isn’t quite right. A charming but unfeeling lothario, Ade kicks with his guys at the golf course, lamenting the side effects of racism on the black man but ignores his girlfriend for most of a special dinner.

From Nigeria, with love (and mischief), his mother (Patience Ozokwor) pleads with him to come back home for his departed dad’s remembrance. On arrival he is ambushed with an arranged bride Grace (Jackie Appiah). After a pathetic inadequate protest, he falls for her nubile charms and brazen sex appeal and the next thing we know he is flying her back to his base in the states. Of course by this time, it is becoming evident that the film doesn’t really care much about the relationship between characterization and plot. If Ade is so used to toying with the ladies, how come he falls so easily into his mother’s trap, after only a night’s action?

After a brief period of wedded bliss, the cracks begin to show. Stacey’s father blacklists him and ensures he never finds work in the finance industry, sweet Grace slowly pulls off her façade and soon Ade is hurled into a life of desperation, regret and danger.

Into the mix comes Oge Okoye’s character, a beweaved hustler with a penchant for trash talking and gum chewing. She is positioned as the villain who leads Grace astray but this does not really fly as a confusing prologue already establishes Grace in a not so flattering light. While Okoye nails the trailer trash hustle and mannerisms of her character, she is quickly driven to unnecessary over acting. In the one scene she shares with Jackie Appiah and K.D Aubert, the American schools both African ladies on the basics of nuanced acting.

Mr Archibog in the lead role is an okay fit. Handsome, but a tad reluctant at every turn, he seems unsure as to how exactly he arrived the film’s set in the first place but one could chalk it up to his character’s indifference. When he hangs with his fellow immigrant buddies and their discussions naturally shift to matters of race and identity, the script struggles for the right tone to present it’s case. Too many mentions of Africa, too much talk, too little scenes that could have added some impact. None of it hits home.

The director and his cinematographer seem to be in love with up close shots and they force so many unnecessary close ups on the audience, it becomes straining to watch at times.

There is a strange underwhelming feeling one gets from ‘Turning point’. There is a lot happening but nothing really that is of serious interest. You watch, a bit non-committedly, mildly curious as to where all of it is heading but when it’s all over, you find you don’t really care either way. It plays like the rough cut of a potentially intriguing story. Only someone wasn’t patient enough to tell it properly.

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