Summary – 4.4.44 is based on true events. It follows the love story of a young couple, Hilary and Theresa; on their wedding night (April 4, 1944), Theresa is poisoned, and even though she survived the ordeal, she lived the rest of her life with severe mental health issues.
This movie is narrated from the point of view of the couple’s first child, Veronica. Veronica had to watch her parents struggle as a result of what happened on the 4th of April, 1944;so this movie is like a memorial to them.
Generally, I like true stories because they provide inspiration for on-screen adventures, if properly explored, they are like windows into the past that lead to beautiful and awe-inspiring films. On the other hand, if poorly told, they become tedious narratives that the viewers have to endure.
What category does the movie 4.4.44 fall under? Unfortunately, it is one of the tedious ones. Intriguing title, impressive lineup of cast, a sensible storyline but still this movie was just so bland. **yawns in boredom wanted to kill my enemy***
What did I like about this movie? Nothing particularly. It had potential, it definitely cannot be called a bad movie, the setting was not bad, their outfits were ok, and set pieces were perfectly placed. Everything looked so crisp and maybe that was the problem, it was too crisp, it looked painfully fake and inauthentic. The cars looked edited, the rain looked fake, the English language they were speaking sounded too smooth- to make matters worse, they were speaking Wakanda English (especially Efe Irele). Please note that this movie was set in the eastern part of Nigeria in 1944 but the rich cultural nuances you would expect to see were missing.
The story itself is sensible but I did not see why they thought it was a life story that deserved to be a movie. It should have been a very sad, deep and moving movie but the storytelling was not quite right. The characters were not compelling, they did not inspire any emotion (even though Theresa was going through so much with her mental health crisis, I could not connect or feel sad, I just watched, wondering where the movie was going).
Acting was good; special accolades to Nse Ikpe Etim, she gave a stellar performance. But I did not understand the casting. In 1944, Seun Akindele was young Hilary, fast forward to 1960 (15 years later) RMD is the new Hilary, how and why???? Seun Akindele is an old man in his own right on a normal day (I’ll put his picture in our story for those who don’t know him) how can he be young RMD??? Also, RMD had no business being in this movie. Seun could have and should have played Hilary from start to finish. Efe Irele should have been Theresa from start to finish too, but I guess they always want to cast popular people.
Back to the story, the movie 4.4.44 was about what happened on the night of April 4, 1944 but even 45mins into this movie, we still did not know what happened on April 4, 1944, they were just dragging and beating around the bush. When they eventually told us what happened on that fateful night it was so brief and underwhelming, you would almost miss it.
I can’t fault this movie for not being entertaining because I am sure their goal was not really to entertain, some would argue that they wanted to use this movie to shed light on mental health issues in our society today. A very laudable cause, but did they really achieve that goal? In my opinion, they attempted to but failed woefully. Let me explain;
Theresa experienced brief periods of sanity and long episodes of mental crisis, she experienced auditory hallucinations and some other symptoms often associated with schizophrenia. Every time Theresa had a crisis, they locked her up in a room where she would hurt herself over and over again. Not once did we see her use medications, instead they emphasized how her mental issue was caused by an evil in-law. This movie is a typical Nollywood representation of “madness”, they emphasized the spiritual more. There are no insights or wisdom or information about mental health awareness to be gained from this movie.
This movie missed the opportunity to equip the viewers with real information about mental health disorders, rather it paid more attention to the ongoing fraud investigation involving Hilary and the community. (Hilary diverted public funds for personal use but this movie was trying so hard to justify the theft). It almost seemed like they were trying to white-wash his image but what do I know.
The last scene was very annoying, why was Teni there? Why was she singing “For your case o” at a memorial ceremony? Considering the style, tone and cultural context of this movie, it was the wrong artist and the wrong song.
Overall, 4.4.44 was just there for me. This movie proves that not all real life stories are movie worthy. Unimpressive story and characters, a few outstanding performances but it was slow and bland, a good recipe for sleep, and it is definitely not the breakthrough for mental health representation that it tries to pose as.
Rating: 4.44/10 (See what i did there?)
