Written, directed and produced by ChinneyLove Eze, this movie titled “27 LETTERS TO YOU” is currently available for streaming on the producer’s YouTube channel with same name. With a duration of 1hour 34minutes, the family drama chiefly stars Timini Egbuson and Ego Nwosu.

SYNOPSIS: (MAY contain spoilers)

Genevieve (Ego Nwosu), an interior designer moves into her new apartment with her 10-year old daughter Laura (Danielle Chikaima) only to realise that her ex Desmond (Timini Egbuson) is her neighbour.

MY TAKE:

This movie has a captivating and intriguing title with an inviting poster. But those are pretty much the most charming things there are to say about the movie.

Casting/Performance:

While the lead characters put up a somewhat good performance especially Ego, I however cannot say the same of the rest of the cast. The little girl who played Laura is adorable but needs some extra coaching playing her roles as naturally as possible; body language, speech mannerisms and eye contact.

Plot/story:

The story is not new and plot isn’t very impressive. Despite its short runtime, it still felt like it dragged. After the second act, it seemed like there wasn’t anything else to add. Should simply have just ended there. Maybe viewers would have been spared the extra 30minutes.

Crew/Technical Aspect:

Makeup was good. Dressing was okay but I don’t understand the choice of Ego’s attires in most of the scenes. It was giving “I’m a tailor vibes” meanwhile she said she’s an interior decorator or something like that. I also don’t understand the background music. It was distracting hearing a Filipino or South Korean kinda song when it’s not a Filipino movie or K-drama.

Don’t want to come across as räcist but I’m not sure I’ve heard core African songs in foreign movies when the theme isn’t. For instance, Lion King had African songs because of its storyline, plot and setting. So, you see NECESSITY IS KEY 👌Since Ego’s character was displaying some beautiful African prints and designs, it would have been cool to also play some beautiful African tunes too. No?

Observations/Questions:

1. For what we later learned from the story, the facial expressions by the two lead characters at the very start of the movie was not in sync with their story. No shock. No surprise. Nothing!

2. At exactly between time frame 57:15 and 57:20, when Genevieve said “are you asking me out?” what did Desmond mean by “Is that what they call it now?” Is he from the 50s or what? 🙄

3. What was all that outburst by Genevieve? Even if what that lady told her were true, did she expect Desmond to have been single all that number of years?

4. The switch from anger to sharing the story of their lives to forgiveness to all that later transpired in the movie, all felt mechanical.

Outcome/Lessons:

Despite its loopholes, there’s however a take home lesson and this is to the effect that assumption remains the kïller of relationships.

Conclusion:

This would have come out better than it did. The duration is encouraging but the dialogues were not as exciting nor engaging. The style of storytelling here wasn’t particularly appealing, compelling or entertaining. It felt dragged and melted into a bore scene after scene. The ending made matters worse so much so that it gets you asking that “oh is that all?” question. Yeah! Underwhelming is the word. Not the producer’s best project, they however did their best.

Verdict: 3.5/10

Have you seen this? What did you think?