First Thoughts

I miss old Nollywood. The Kanayo-Hilda Dokubo-Pete Edochie days. Back then, there was context in movies. You watch a film and they give you the before, the during and the after for you to really understand the story. That was why their movies were so long back then. 

Sadly for this movie, it wasn’t the case. We never got to see the before — what Dominic was like BEFORE he lost his job the first time. This movie was just long for nothing but I will speak more about that 

The Cast and Crew

Ben Touitou as Dominic
Pearl Wats as Ajoke
Susan Zayat as Maureen
Onyeka Ezejiofor as Ajoke’s Boss
Aishat Mohammed as Dominic’s girlfriend
Omotayo Adefeye as Gatekeeper



Written by Susan Frederick
Produced by Samuel Omorogbe
Directed by Onyeka Ezejiofor
Soundtrack: Mr Tee @Tee Soundfactory

Full Story

Ajoke and Dominic are a married couple. Ajoke has a job while Dominic is her grumpy jobless husband. 

According to her, when he used to have a job, he was a loving husband. Did we see him ever being nice? 

But they said he was once upon a time nice until he lost his job. All we get to see is  Dominic being a grumpy turd who misconstrues his wife’s good intentions as emasculation.

Ajoke would give him money, and Dominic would complain that she was treating him like a child. Ajoke would offer to take him out shopping, and Dominic would complain that she was emasculating him. 

She ordered a pair of shoes for him and asked Dominic to collect them from the dispatch rider. Hoga Dominic trashed their bedroom whining that Ajoke had turned him into her errand boy. 

One day, Ajoke returns home from work sad because she lost her job. She explains that her team made a mistake and she was advised by her boss to resign so as to avoid her having a “sack” on her professional record.

The next day (I presume), Dominic gets a call that he has been employed for the sales manager position in a company. When Ajoke looks at the name of the company that hired him, it is the company she used to work for. They celebrate his employment and Dominic doesn’t eat breakfast on his first day of work because he wants to get to work early. 

After the initial excitement, Dominic goes back to his detestable ways but this time, he transcends beyond his norm and enters into the demonic sphere. 

The first thing he does after getting a job is to give away Ajoke’s laptop. He doesn’t want her looking for a job. He doesn’t want her to ever work: her job is to be a full-time housewife.

Next, he bans her from using their joint car — the car they both share. Public transportation is now her only source of transportation. 

Furthermore, now that Dominic has money and Ajoke doesn’t, he becomes a philanderer who brings his side chick home, and locks Ajoke in the room with them, forcing her to watch them have sex as a form of torture. 

Things get so bad that Dominic even becomes a physical abuser, beating Ajoke at the slightest provocation and for the silliest of things. 

After Dominic had his fill of tormenting Ajoke, he served her divorce papers because he was getting married to his sidepiece. Ajoke asks for a day to think about it and Dominic agrees begrudgingly. 

The next day, Ajoke signs the papers and hands them over to Dominic. Immediately after signing, Dominic gets a call that he has been fired but Dominic thinks it is a prank call. He goes to work the next day and finds out that the call was very real.

HE IS…

He also finds out that the company has been acquired and is under new management. Dominic waits to meet the new owner but to his surprise, it is Ajoke. 

Now instead of this 

to apologise or have some shame and keep quiet, he tries to blame and slap Ajoke. He calls her wicked and selfish but Ajoke doesn’t take it this time around.

She tells him that she sold their home, used the money to buy the company and she serves him a restraining order. Also, she tells him that she’d been poisoning him for a while now and he is going to 

Soon.

Dominic begs for her forgiveness, referring to his infernal actions as the devil’s work but Ajoke is done listening to him. She no longer loves him anymore. 

The End.

Rating out of 10

I give it 😑😑😑

This movie could have been something if they had shown us (even if it was just through flashbacks) the good times. We should have seen the time when Dominic was a great husband. That would have sold the “change” in character Ajoke and Maureen spoke of. All we saw instead was a bad husband who became worse.

 Why?! Where was the context?

Even the twist they showed in the end was so obvious from the moment Ajoke said she was “sacked” from work. 

This was not an enjoyable movie for me. It was confusing a lot of the time. They spent so much time — 2hours and 11minutes — recycling the same actions from Dominic 

• He brings his whore home
• they fuck
• he asks Ajoke to make refreshments for them
• Ajoke wastes time
• he beats her up
• Rinse
• repeat.

Then eventually, after an hour of looping the same subplot, they wrapped up.

Nah, this film was not it.