***This review contains spoilers for Christmas in Lagos
Christmas in Lagos is very much as rom-com as it gets, which is a probably a bit on the nose, from a personal perspective, to jump right on this Amazon Prime original right after finishing a rom-com marathon (pencil in for next year?).
Directed by Jade Osiberu, this movie has in itself quite a cast. Teniola Aladese is Fiyin, who starts off by picking up her cousin, Ivie (Rayxia Ojo) at the airport, as well as her best friend, Elo (Shalom Chibuikem Obiago), with whom she wants to be more than best friends, a feeling she plans to eventually confess to later on…except there’s the slight complication that Elo is planning to propose to his girlfriend Yagazie (Angel Anosike). Meanwhile, there’s Fiyin’s mum, Gbemisola (Shaffy Bello), who’s caught in a love triangle, and has to decide between the ultra-wealthy Zach (Richard Mofe-Damijo) and the gentle Toye (Wale Ojo)… or more appropriately, she has to decide between whether she chooses either of them, or none.
This movie also gets one of the pitfalls that hamper Love Actually, however, which is the presence of too many moving parts. There are at least three central love stories, all of which can lay claim to being the main plot of this movie. Then there’s the self-actualisation and self-realisation journeys that Fiyin and Gbemisola embark on, which, in fairness, do tie in to the love stories a fair bit, but they also can argue their case as a central point of the movie.
The problem, though, isn’t necessarily following these storylines. The problem is investing in them. It’s one thing that the stories largely have the same amount of depth, it’s another that even the opposing love tangles kind of have similar levels of development as well. Maybe Jade Osiberu wants the audience to make up its mind while watching, and not necessarily tilt opinion on who to root for, but so many moving parts rob this movie of attracting any central emotional investment from those watching, not to mention how the level of depth is original insufficient. It’s fine, but that’s kind of it.
Christmas in Lagos being cutesy and wholesome is also hindered by the storyline regarding Elo’s family, particularly his mother (played by Ebele Okaro). The first real scene where the movie employs some seriousness within it involved Elo’s family and Christmas, a tale of which the audience watching has no experience, but we’re thrown into the emotional thrust of it with non-diegetic sound and no backstory. It’s almost like the movie is confusing catharsis for pure emotion and tone, divorced of story. It has the vibe of ‘get emotional now, we’ll tell you why later’.
That largely botched bit falls in line with much of the rare parts of this movie that carries with it any form of emotional weight. They’re either prematurely shown, or they get swatted aside soon after they come along. From the perspective of a romantic comedy, that probably works, and it would be wrong to linger on such a tonal shift in the movie for a while. But it also glosses over the part of the movie that would be expected to have real urgency and tension (the Fiyin-Elo-Yagazie dynamic, which is resolved even more hastily for a romantic comedy).
Christmas in Lagos has an adorableness that works for it. From the litany of artist cameos to the romantic glances between characters that almost make up for its plain and overtly surface-level dialogue, to the chemistry between characters that compensate for acting which doesn’t go beyond third gear.
It’s cute. It’s cringe. It has little depth, but can make a claim to be likeable. In essence, Christmas is Lagos is fine, but that’s kind of it.
On About Nothing Rating: 6.5/10
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