Movie Review: Love in Every Word: The Wedding

Achalugo and Odogwu came back to give us a wedding, and while the hype was real for these two, it fell short of expectations, at least for me. From the unnecessarily long runtime to excessive ad pop-ups, misalignment of characters, and unnecessary scenes, the whole sequel felt like a justification rather than a continuation of a storyline that made every embrace multiple catchphrases.

Quick Recap

Love in Every Word is a YouTube movie production of Omoni Oboli TV.

Over the past five years, many Nollywood actors have switched to creating their own movies and launching on YouTube. Some have been a disturbing miss, and others a hit so massive it could stand against cinema releases of top Nollywood directors.

Omoni Oboli TV has released tons of movies over the years, but the characters of Odogwu, played by Uzor Arukwe, and Chioma, played by Bambam, won people over.

It went from a sleeper watch to amassing over 28 million views. The storyline followed Odogwu as he vied for Chioma’s love through her insecurities, fears, and acceptance of the differences between their worlds. It was heartfelt, funny, interesting, exciting, and a good watch.

Fast forward weeks earlier, and we got news of a sequel that would feature the old cast and include a newer one, the legendary Patience Ozokwor, who would play Odogwu’s mother.

The Sequel

The storyline follows the couple as they prepare for the wedding amidst family issues and the return of an ex.

The Runtime

The sequel is over three hours long, I think three hours and twenty-two minutes or so, and it was uncalled for.

Granted, I do watch long movies; King of Boys was three hours long, but the difference between the two was that the elements in KOB were necessary to give life to the movie. With Love in Every Word: The Wedding, it was just not worth it.

While watching, you could feel the director trying to justify the unnecessary runtime by extending scenes, conversations, wins, losses, and so on. The entire movie could easily be one hour and thirty minutes and still be justifiable, but at that runtime, it’s a no for me. I had to pick up my sketchbook and practice freehand sketching while watching because I could not allow three hours of my time to go by just like that.

The Plot

While preparing for the marriage, news gets to the matriarch of Odogwu’s family that Chioma is a “bastard.” Like almost every typical African mother, Odogwu’s mother refuses to accept her and goes around all the kinsmen, convincing them to go against him and return her bride list, which they do and put the wedding on hold. This brings up a dilemma many couples face: do you go ahead to marry the love of your life if the family says no and insists on breaking it off, or do you walk away and save them that heartache?

The Decision

Chioma chose to walk away, which I stand with. That has and will always be my decision. It’s different when you get married and they then switch up and start acting weird, than knowing they didn’t like you at all and diving ring-first into it.

Many partners who have gone through these issues and stayed have shared how difficult it was for them, pushing through and fighting off everybody through it. Some even had their family members have a change of heart. Other couples didn’t have it easy, and throughout their marriage, they couldn’t ignore everything it caused.

My stand is to let go. Will it be easy? No. It will hurt because you know this is your person. Marriage is enough pressure by itself, and allowing someone to come in with the extra pressure of cutting family ties is going to triple that burden. All of a sudden, you have to make sure the marriage works because they have already lost everything because of you.

For that decision, Chioma has my heart because it is not easy, but she made the right choice.

The Ex

There’s always that devil’s advocate that comes into play when life is fine, and they’re usually the ones you couldn’t get closure with for one reason or another. Chioma’s handling of the ex’s involvement was a bit dicey. She was lucky enough to have a man who chose the capital over money, but it should have been clear to her that Hassan was doing all of it to get her back. It didn’t do a lot for the storyline other than elongate the whole Dubai contract and give exes a mention in trying to ruin a wedding.

The Bastard Accusation

Just like the elder said, in certain tribes, a child unclaimed by her father belongs to the mother’s people and is not a bastard. But African mothers always have to make a scene out of everything, especially if they don’t like the girl in the first place. It did not hold water, but what can I say? We needed that African mother vibe to spice it up, and they knew the right person to cast. The minute I figured out she was his mother, I yelled because she is not someone you want to get on her bad side — in movies. (She’s a sweetheart in real life.)

The Set-Up

Chioma and her future mother-in-law at the same resort? I get. Her former employer? Talk about a McGuffin placement of issues. The scene was so out of nowhere, allowing Chioma to show she had her former employer’s side, even though the so-called employer was a mean boss to her. It felt staged, so much so that I thought they were in with Odogwu on helping show that Chioma is a “nice person.” It was so out there and from nowhere and was meh for me.

The conversation between his mother and Chioma — hmmm.

I would not open up that way to a stranger. I don’t know about others, but there’s no way I would just willingly be all open and nice. Though in her defence, she didn’t give out too much, but even though…

The Wedding

There have been many movies that have exhibited traditional weddings, and of course, it’s always colourful, but this was almost a concert, and again, so unnecessary for me. I skipped past a ton of it because it just was… I don’t have the words to explain how I felt about it.

The Ads

Heineken has been a long-time sponsor for the James Bond franchise, but with Daniel Craig’s instalments, he got to drink it in the movie. All Daniel had to do was drink from it and show he was drinking from it. It was there, obvious, but chill. He didn’t make a quip remark or come up with something to validate drinking it. He just drank it.

And there have been many more movies with ads. Sneakers was recently featured in Jurassic World Rebirth. In fact, the wrapper caused a mishap in the lab that led to the death of the person who littered the wrapper and triggered the entire movie.

That’s how ads are supposed to be, but somehow, Love in Every Word turned the entire three-hour run into a “Spot the Ad” contest. It was so forced and odd to hear them calling out the name of the brands while using it:

“Oh, my network is not good. Let me connect to my MTN 4G MIFI that is very strong…”

“Can you please hand me the Knorr Maggi and Mamador Oil…”

“You need to brush. Use your Closeup to brush…”

The only time a comment was not made about a product was when Bambam drank Coca-Cola during her wedding planning.

Whose genius idea was it to call out ads?

How much did the companies pay to have their products take front and centre in such an irksome manner?

I get that brands wanted to jump on this, seeing how successful the first one was, but come on already! Really? Now, I don’t even want to use the products again.

Final Thoughts

I did not not like it, but I definitely did not love it. It was just okay. Too many things changed.

First of all, Odogwu had an accent in part 1. The accent fit for a non-traditionally educated man who may have stopped in secondary school and faced business, but Uzor came back as an educated Igbo man feigning illiteracy, which made his character fall flat. Sure, he was able to throw it in every now and then, but it was not on point at all. It was far off. Too off to feel like the same person.

The friend they had to call over the phone to keep it in the clique was unnecessary. That character could have easily been replaced with someone else. What exactly was our concern with Rotimi’s mother? Why did we need that added over-the-phone character?

Bambam at least came back the same, softer though. The dragging of the words also felt off, like it was wayyyy too soft and slow, but she was still her.

The issues were important to a couple, but they were too stretched out and almost lost their efficacy.

I have a love-hate relationship with sequels, and this sequel fuelled the hate part way more. The prequel didn’t need anything, and I hope to God they are not even thinking of doing a third part because, as a good friend said, it is now “Unnecessary in Every Word.”

It’s fine, but trust me, those three hours will get on your nerves. It’s not as good as the prequel — no surprise there — but it did highlight issues that affect couples, and I give them kudos for that.

Have you seen it yet? What are your thoughts?