MOVIE REVIEW ------ 4 PLAY

4 PLAY by; Austin brako (University of Ghana, Legon)

A Venus Film Production 2010, produced by Abdul Salam Mumuni and Directed by the all time Frank Rajah Arase.

Confessing, this is a movie with a bevy of Ghanaian talents; Majid Michel, John Dumelo, Omar Sherif Captain, Jackie Appiah, Kalsum Sinare, Juliet Ibrahim, Yvonne Okoro, mixed with young coming talents.

Imagine coming home after work to find your husband with whom you have a daughter with having sex with his fellow man in your bedroom. What will be your initial reaction; surprise or shock?

However your reaction; be it surprise or shock, the movie 4 Play is one such movie throwing into the face of Ghanaians an all time debate about the Ghanaian gay community.
Notwithstanding our nihilistic measures towards the gay community, fact is, it is here with us and who knows “till thy kingdom come”.

Ruby (Yvonne Okoro) a lady with much flare in acting was given a tip by an unknown caller that her husband Jayke (Omar Sherif Captain) is driving to the Mensvic hotel at East Legon to meet his lover. Her first impulse was to ask Jayke whether he is, “…cheating on me?”

The movie 4 Play started with a vivid description of each of the major actors and actresses.

The first scene was a beach resort where the three couples and the spinster were having a nice time; Alvin (Majid Michel) and Diana (Helena Asante); Rex (John Dumelo) and Jezel (Jackie Appiah); Jayke (Omar Sherif Captain) and Ruby (Yvonne Okoro); and Nivera (Juliet Ibrahim).

The four ladies in the movie inter alia; Jezel (Jackie Appiah), Ruby (Yvonne Okoro), Diana (Helena Asante), and Nivera (Juliet Ibrahim) epitomize the “educated woman” with the inquisitive mind to skirt the world of its possibilities.

Ruby (Yvonne Okoro) thought her husband to be all-loving and “perfect” until she found him in the Mensvic Hotel with his gay partner with towels on their waist.

What a shock?

Nivera (Juliet Ibrahim) has been having bad times with men and had convincingly settled on the sixteen years old Kojo (Jesse Sarpong). Though she feels embarrassed to take him for outing, Kojo’s energy in “sexing” Nivera (Juliet Ibrahim) to a point of her satisfaction seems the magic wand that bounds the two together even in the face of sharp criticism from her friends.
“Get real with what Jezel? I mean look around you. Look around you. Is a city filled with too many women and too few men”, cried Nivera (Juliet Ibrahim) in reaction to Jezel’s (Jackie Appiah) injunction for the ladies to get real.

We must not suffer get to our wit end before appreciating the excruciating pain Nivera (Juliet Ibrahim) and her other friends go through in their search for a “good man”.

It is at their get together that hard revelations and hidden truths reared it ugly heads; the fact that, Nivera (Juliet Ibrahim) slept with Rex (John Dumelo), that Alvin (Majid Michel) impregnated Ruby (Yvonne Okoro), that Diana used voodoo in getting Alvin (Majid Michel) walked down the isle with her, and that Jezel (Jackie Appiah) got herself in an abortion that has left her barren for the rest of her life.

Though nice it is a movie bogged down with a lot of central themes, and subject matters to the point of sounding meaningless.

The setting was carefully chosen coupled with the flashy costumes of the players.

But for the timely intervention of these beautiful minds, the Ghanaian movie industry will have been bounded into the deep abyss till eternity.

You got to see this movie now!

Reserve your comment. See you later.

Augrako4gh@gmail.com +233 242 62 81 64