Every character in this movie is on my shit list. 

Everyone except Ruby (my angel) and to a lesser degree, David. I would have liked him as much but helping Boye to lie demoted him. 

You must be asking, why is she so pissed about every other character? Relax, 

Plot Summary

Old Habits is a movie about a guy, Boye. He is a divorcee and a writer.

Boye has a younger brother named David. David is a ditz but his heart is in the right place.

He has a girlfriend named Hadiza whose birthday is coming up. David invites Boye to her birthday party and tells him that he plans on proposing to Hadiza on her birthday.

David also tells Boye that Hadiza has a rule that all her guests must come with a date and suggests that Boye should bring his new neighbour if he can’t find any woman to attend the party with.

Boye submits a new manuscript to his editor, Ryan but Ryan is not impressed with it. He feels that the book is missing a little something. So he asks that Boye collaborate with Tems, a sex therapist to get the book’s romance right.

Tems is Boye’s ex-wife and he is adamant about not working with her but Ryan doesn’t care.

Fast forward to some days before Hadiza’s birthday, Boye befriends his new neighbour. Her name is Ruby and she is a gynaecologist.

He and Ruby become fast friends and she agrees to be his date to the party. Boye briefs her on everything and everyone at the party. When Ruby and he arrive at David’s house, Ruby makes a good impression and Hadiza likes her immediately.

During the birthday dinner, David proposes to Hadiza. She says yes and what do you know, a new guest arrives.

Tems, Boye’s ex-wife.

Immediately she enters the place, she is rude and cold towards Ruby who is nice and friendly to her.

She uses randos to make Boye jealous and it works because Boye is all flustered.

Ruby finds out Tems is his ex-wife and Ruby is still friendly. She is so normal about the whole thing.

Some days later, Boye goes to work and finds Tems in his office. He barges into Ryan’s office to know why and Ryan is like

“she is here to help you with the book. Go work with her.”

And he does.

Later that day, Ruby visits Boye and asks him out on a date. He refuses and when she tries to know more about what happened between Boye and Tems, he asks her to leave his flat.

Later on, he regrets it and asks for forgiveness. Ruby forgives him and he plans a sitting room date for the two of them.

They eat dinner, they talk and kiss and sleep on the floor next to each other.

After that date, Boye shows Ruby the manuscript for his new book and she loves it. He then tells her what Ryan said about the book and Ruby sides with Ryan.

Ruby also asks if the book was about Tems and Boye says no.

Ruby advises that he works with Tems because she is a sex therapist and would know how to give the book the oomph it needs.

Oh, and Ruby says she will be going to a conference and won’t be around for David and Hadiza’s engagement party.

While Ruby is away for her medical conference, Tems visits Boye to work on the book. She takes him out to some rundown building that once housed the restaurant they went to for their first date.

The trip down memory lane makes Boye so nostalgic, that he and Tems

And they continue to do and do and do and do till Boye asks Tems

And she hits him with the,

“we’re just kicking it until we are done with the book.”

Her answer upsets him and he asks her to leave.

Boye tells David what happened and even sends him a text late at night not to tell Hadiza about it.

Hadiza sees the text while David is asleep.

A drunk Boye returns home to meet a distraught Ruby. He takes her inside to sleep and the next morning, she tells him the real reason she was transferred to Lagos.

Her boss was a creep and when she reported him to HR, nothing was done to the creep. She was transferred instead.

Going to the conference and seeing her creep of a boss upset her. So she left earlier than she was supposed to.

This made Ruby available for David and Hadiza’s engagement party.

She goes to the party with Boye and while helping Hadiza with her hair, Tems walks in, giving Ruby the same old passive-aggressive energy.

Ruby, as always, is nice and courteous to her. She leaves Hadiza and Tems together because she gets a phone call.

While she is out of the room, Hadiza confronts Tems for always coming in and trying to ruin Boye’s life whenever he is trying to move on. Terms retorts with an

“I don’t think he loves Ruby or whatever her name is. His new book is about me and he still loves me.”

Ruby hears all of this and storms off.

Boye and Tems meet up at a bar and she confesses that the reason why she came back was to raise money for her gallery in London.

She was broke and needed money. When Ryan called, she couldn’t resist. Boye sympathises with her and they call a truce. She also informs him that she is going back to London.

The next day, Boye gets a call from Ryan that his book is getting published. Not knowing who to call, he calls Ruby. They talk and she visits him in his flat.

There she informs him that she is going back to Abuja because her creepy boss has been disgraced. More women came forward and he is getting tried.

Boye tries to say he loves her but Ruby stops him. She tells him not to say what he doesn’t mean. Ruby also says that he loves Tems and Tems loves him too. It’s just that neither of them wants to admit it.

Ruby advises him to go for it with Tems.

And Boye does. He confesses his feelings to Tems and begs her not to leave for London. They kiss, the end.

I just realised I didn’t say why I hated Hadiza

After Ruby storms out of the engagement party, Boye lashes out at David for being a wimp who allows his fiancee to control him.

David thinks about it and realises that Boye was right so he confronts Hadiza (who also exposes herself for always going through David’s phone without his consent).

While they are arguing, she calls Boye a

“foster brother who is a liability. There is no connection there and David needs to focus on her now that she is about to be his wife”.

David is disappointed in her because Boye was the one who asked him to forgive Hadiza when she cheated on him and shame finally overpowers Hadiza, forcing her to become remorseful.

Isn’t she lovely?

My Thoughts

I HATED everyone (but Ruby) in this movie. They tried to make us root for Boye and Tems love but I couldn’t for the life of me give an iota of a damn about them because they are terrible people.

Boye used Ruby to “get over” his ex-wife whom he is so obsessed with. In trying to do so, he damn near trapped Ruby in an emotionally abusive relationship.

Tems, who dumped Boye, donkey years ago, was so possessive of him, she treated Ruby with contempt. Ruby was a nice girl who was warm and friendly but Bitchface Tems chose to enter into a competition with Ruby.

Congratulations Tems, you won your trophy, Boye.

As for David the ditz, Hadiza should have been a forgotten memory the minute she tried to rearrange your familial relationship with your brother.

That woman is nothing but trouble and in due time you will know.

The Wrap Up

I enjoyed this movie and more people need to see it. So yeah, go watch… NOW!

CAST

Kachi Nnochiri as Boye
Bolaji Ogunmola as Tems
Sandra Okunzuwa as Ruby
Daniel Abua as David
Lucy Ameh as Hadiza
Val Edochie as Ryan