Synopsis; Two best friends, Uche and Toyin, fall in love with Sunday, a charming, yet flawed eligible bachelor. A love triangle ensues with the women unaware that they are dating the same man.
What did I like?
Picture quality was great! I liked the fine houses.
I must mention that acting and casting worked but none of the performances were outstanding if we are being honest.
What did I not like?
I did not like the story. 30mins into this movie, I realized that a Sunday Affair is as unimaginative as it’s title. An incredibly bland story told with colourful pictures.
The story is not new – you have most likely seen several movies where 2 friends love the same man. Infact, even Ebonylife explored something similar in Chief Daddy 2 where 2 sisters Tinu and Teni decided to share 1 man. However, a good movie is not necessarily a movie that tells a story we have never seen before, a good movie is one that can tell a familiar story in a compelling manner. Was this movie compelling?No. Was it exciting? No. Was it satisfying? No.
Weak dialogue, attention to detail was not the best (for example- they mistakenly swapped the children at some point- the dark child should have been Toyin and the fair child Uche but in that scene where the children went back to the house to meet Hilda Dokubo, the fair child was referred to as Toyin and the dark child was Uche)
Costume and makeup was not the best and unfortunately, Nse Ikpe-Etim suffered it the most. The earrings, the hair pin, the ugly wig and even the outfits just did not sit right. Let’s not forget the fact that the 2 main female characters in this movie wore the same wig all through the movie(At least 1 year).
I’ll like to categorically say that this movie is not a romantic movie even though it tries to pose as one. Let’s be real, it was impossible for this movie to be romantic in anyway because the main premise of this movie was quite problematic.
The movie is premised on the fact that 2 friends fall in love with a flawed bachelor. Mr Scumday is not a flawed man, neither is he a bachelor. He is a very married cheat who abandoned his wife and child, we never really got to find out the actual reason why he was getting a divorce, we never found out if he was actually getting a divorce or he was just lying. So I ask again, what is romantic about this? He did not love any of them, he did not even relate with them enough to know them, they did not have any interactions that could have inspired love. The ladies did not love him either, they did not even know him!🤦🏽♀️
Another thing I did not like was character development, who were these people? These characters did not grow or evolve in this movie instead, we saw a case of character regression (Toyin started as someone who was smarter and made better choices, but she did a u-turn as the movie progressed). Also, they gave us characters we could not like or cheer for. Which one of them were we supposed to root for?
- Sunday the womanizer who shamelessly had sex with another woman at his brother’s wedding even though his wife and child were in attendance? Sunday who was having an affair with 2 friends? Sunday who abandoned his family?
- Uche a kept woman whose biggest achievement was sleeping with married men? Uche who relied on her sugar daddy for even the most basic needs. Uche who could not backdown when she found out her friend was carrying Sunday’s baby and was still having sex with him?
- Toyin who started like someone who had sense but turned out to be as dull as her friend?
I don’t know about you people but all of them were annoying me and I was wondering who designed these characters? It was giving me “God forbid bad thing vibe” Because there was nothing appealing about the 3 of them.
Plot progression was not great. There was nothing to actually look forward to because we could all see that Sunday was just a manipulative jerk and these women just had poor taste in men, so there were no high points in this movie. After the whole hide and seek, even when the women found out about Sunday’s duplicity, nothing happened. I was waiting for that point in the movie where they would give us a show, i really was waiting for that point where they would acknowledge that they deserved better. But nothing happened.
The end of the movie was even more annoying. The sickness, the letter, the $250k purchase of paintings that apparently came from Toyin, Toyin wishing them the best and telling them to live together happily. Everything was just very pretentious and I was rolling my eyes because live together happily how??? Most movies end with a promise that the people involved lived happily ever after and based on what you saw in the movie, you just trust that indeed they would live together blissfully but a Sunday affair is one movie where you can actually beat your chest and say with certainty that they lived unhappily ever after, because live happily based on what exactly? Mr Scumday will move on to the next unsuspecting woman and cheat again…DFKM!
Personally, I found the whole film to be very bizarre. Because somehow it was trying to whitewash cheating. Some people would say “the movie was trying to be mature, but I think that’s another way of saying it was toxic.
I particularly disliked this movie’s portrayal of women (it fails the Bechdel Test). This movie made them look so desperate and weak. It affirmed so many negative stereotypes about women and its core message seemed to be that a man is the prize, even if he is a shitty one. A Sunday affair is dispiriting and sexist (it is so sexist, I’m sure it will fail the Bechdel test – check my story for explanation)
Overall, this movie was not a good watch for me. While it may be visually attractive, a Sunday affair is an underwhelming melodrama that lacks passion and energy. Unlikable protagonist, paper thin characterization, unappealing premise, pretentious ending. For someone like me who unfortunately watched it on Feb 14, this movie left a very bad taste in my mouth because I realized that on the single day dedicated to love, i wasted 96mins of my life i’ll never get back watching someone’s contrived and twisted idea of a romance movie.
Rating: 4/10
Have you seen it? Thoughts?
P.s: If you are new here, i know you might be wondering why this write up sounds like we are buddies, well the thing is that i’m just a regular movie lover like you, sharing my unfiltered thoughts and i want you to feel like you’re right here with me gisting about every epic moment. I mean, who wants a stuffy and formal review right?
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