Devil is a Liar-Movie Review

This movie follows the story of Adaora (played by Nse Ikpe-Etim), a successful realtor who is under pressure to get married before she turns 40. She eventually meets a man named Jaiye (played by James Gardiner) and he turns her life upside down.

I did not like this film at all.

An older woman, deceived by a young man who steals her money and ruins her life, is a storyline you have most likely seen before. And while that is not really a bad thing in itself, the problem is that Moses Inwang takes this common storyline and still gives us a shallow and mediocre movie in 2025.

What did I like?

Personally, nothing. Not even Nse’s presence was able to salvage this mess. I mean, there was nothing that stood out enough for me to call it out. It did not offer much in terms of entertainment, insight, or value. It took a long time to get to the point and when we eventually got there, it was very underwhelming. So no, I did not like anything.

Not the setting, cinematography, lighting, or any other technical element. The audio was even particularly problematic because there were some scenes where it seemed to me like the sound and the actions were not matching.

What were the issues? 

The Devil is a liar is poorly written. I mean the writing is so bad, nothing made sense. It was poorly researched, poorly thought out and poorly executed.

First off, I did not like the storyline and I particularly hated the whole Double Jeopardy angle. For context, the legal concept of Double Jeopardy means a person cannot be tried twice for the same crime. The way this movie used the concept felt like a lazy copy of the old Hollywood film titled Double Jeopardy. What makes this even more ridiculous is that the internet is filled with resources and reviews pointing out how that particular film misapplied the law. A quick Google search would have told them that Double Jeopardy does not give anyone a free pass to commit a new crime even after a wrongful conviction. The careless misrepresentation here just screamed laziness on the part of the writer, negligence from the director, and a lack of vision from everyone involved.

In the same vein, this film categorically tells us things that are not necessarily true in order to move forward:

The ₦600 million loan: Correct me if I am wrong but in Nigeria today, no one can legally take a loan of ₦600 million “on your behalf”. The process of signing a loan contract is not something that happens in a day. Someone cannot just give you papers to sign then take it to the Bank on your behalf to secure a loan in your name. There is a strict KYC process that requires your express consent, verified identity, and usually your physical presence or at least verifiable biometric or electronic approval.

The missing property documents: Even If someone steals a box containing all your property documents, you DO NOT automatically lose your assets. The physical paper is just evidence of ownership, not ownership itself. There are also legal processes to help in cases like this and  lawyers exist for a reason, yet Adaora’s lawyer just stood around, looking lost!

The corporate account hack: Using Adaora’s personal ATM cards to hack into her company’s corporate accounts? Impossible. It’s not typical to withdraw from a company’s corporate account with a bank card. When opening a corporate account, the company must file a board resolution and specify account signatories with the bank. Withdrawals are done through authorized signatories via cheques or transfers not a random ATM card. Also, if Adaora left the house that day, her ATM cards were likely with her, not conveniently left behind. So no, the person who burgled Adaora’s house shouldn’t have been able to access her company’s corporate accounts.

They were so determined to prove that her life was crumbling, they did not carefully consider the plausibility of everything. In my opinion, each misfortune piled on her was built on shaky, illogical premises.

Acting and casting did not work for me. Don’t get me wrong, Nse Ikpe-Etim is a good actress on a normal day, so she still managed to deliver a fairly decent performance, but I just did not think she was the best person for the role of Adaora. James Gardiner’s delivery was not poor, it was not good either. It was a very flat delivery. He tried earnestly to hide his accent since his character was supposed to be a Yoruba guy, but it just did not work. Why couldn’t he just be Ghanaian living in Lagos? If they needed the character to be Yoruba so badly, why then was he the actor chosen for the role? Erica Nwedilim played the role of Anna, and I must say not much has changed since the last time I saw her in the movie Devil in Agbada. She still does not know how to act.

Character development was poor. They could have shown us how prison changed Adaora and hardened her in very subtle ways without necessarily making her act and sound like that. Ada was a classy and well-to-do young woman before she went to prison, so why is she suddenly sounding like an uncultured and uneducated person? 

Jaiye and Anna were also two weird characters that were not properly developed. Even though we saw them a lot, we never really got to know them or their actual plans or motives. It did not seem like there was much thought behind the actions of these two important characters, and it baffled me.

Watching this, there were so many unanswered questions. Why did Adaora spend only six years in jail? Jaiye was a popular face in the Lagos fashion industry and he was declared dead, so why exactly would he come back to Lagos? I really wanted to know if all Jaiye and Anna did was just a coincidence, or did the both of them intentionally seek Adaora out after the wedding? Did Adaora just randomly enter Jaiye’s shop, or did something or someone lead her there? Before the big accident, did they have plans to run away since they had already stolen almost a billion naira from her, or were they just going to continue living like that?

Jaiye’s injury and surgery was also a big issue for me. When they mentioned that he had to go to India, I honestly thought it was another scam because we all saw when the car hit him, yes? It was not anything serious. So when Adaora’s sisters went to the hospital to see him days after the accident and we saw him wrapped like an Egyptian mummy, I thought to myself, it’s a scam, there is nothing wrong with him. My suspicion was further backed up by the fact that there was blood on his arm and on his cheeks, (remember this was days after the actual accident) like someone hastily put it there before the visitors arrived. But by the time we got to the end, it turns out it was actually not a scam and he was really sick. They actually went to India, he had the surgery, and Anna decided that they should pretend that he died. So did the hospital forget to wipe the blood days after his accident? Also, after everything Jaiye put Adaora through, nobody suspected any foul play, her sisters and her lawyer just gave Anna the money to find the hospital and sort out the surgery as opposed to coordinating it themselves?? 

Meanwhile, if Jaiye was really sick and on his death bed, it means it was Anna that robbed Adaora’s house,yes? So that also means that Anna was the hacker that cleared her company accounts? It is well. 

I did not like the movie Devil Is a Liar because it was borrrrring. There was no highlight. They were unable to build any momentum from start to finish. The whole thing was so predictable. The first half of the movie focused on the “whirlwind” romance between Adaora and Jaiye, and I must say there was not much to see there because there was really no connection between Nse and James. The sex scenes were an eyesore, and there was one particular scene where he recorded them having sex. I was not sure why, and it was not really of any relevance to the story. There were also too many cringe moments, but there were some scenes that were sooo bad. I think I particularly hated the scene where she fought in jail and the next minute she started sounding like a tout, her voice was deeper, she was asking for a cigarette and acting like the new prison chairman. I did not like the scene where they told her about the death of her child, there was the scene where she was dancing at the resort. I looked away. I did not understand why she was dancing like that. Then the eventual confrontation that happened between Jaiye and Adaora, extremely disappointing. I don’t even know what I found more painful, the poorly executed fight scene, or the part where she requested for one billion naira from Anna, I just rolled my eyes. Plus what was that ugly resort anyway??

I’ll stop here because The Devil is really a liar.

Overall, this film was not a good watch for me. It was supposed to be a compelling story about love and betrayal, but it fell very flat. Terrible script, poor directing, weak acting, mediocre storytelling.

My Rating: 2.5/10

Have you seen the Devil is a Liar, please share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Read the review of Thin line here.

We have a fun and vibrant community on Instagram and Twitter, you can also join the conversation there or Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!