NORA’S LOVER - A Tale of a Pastor, his wife and her lover. Only that its plot and direction are disappointing

Written & directed by Joy Isi Bewaji, produced by Esther Akapo and Executively produced by Uche Jombo, this movie titled “NORA’S LOVER” is currently streaming on the latter’s YouTube channel with same name. With a runtime of 1hour 52minutes, the film chiefly features Bolaji Ogunmola, Bobby Ekpe, Michael Dappa and Adaora Ukoh.

SYNOPSIS: (MAY contain spoilers)

Grace (Bolaji Ogunmola) a former banker is married to Collins (Bobby Ekpe) who is now a Pastor. A full time housewife, Grace is constantly büllied by Deaconess Eby (Adaora Ukoh). Her husband Collins, deeply engrossed in ‘Church activities’ neglecting his conjugal duties, Grace decides to let out her alter ego, naming it ‘NORA’

The question begging for answers: what does she do? Throwing caution to the wind, Grace decides to have an affair with her late neighbour’s nephew James (Michael Dappa). What are the consequences?

MY TAKE:

Straight up, I’m utterly DISAPPOINTED to say the least! I am FUMING!!!

From the storyline, to the plot, to the direction, to the costuming to the makeup! Apart from its educational value of adopting the element of ALTER EGO which meaning many may not have been aware of prior, the rest is absolute BALDERDASH in MY OPINION! And I’m not mincing words.

Story/Plot:

The approach to storytelling and direction here is outrightly bland, tasteless. We have no background knowledge of the Pastor, his wife and their past love story.

All we see is a Pastor coming back from a supposed retreat or convention or whatever/wherever it was he went to for days and next thing, he sets up a laptop for a zoom Church meeting (with fake smiles) and next, he’s talking down on his wife Grace. Why is he almost always so pissed at her? We don’t know! Even if there’s a slight hint, it holds no water!

Should we talk about the Deaconess Eby who continues to trash-talk the supposed Pastor’s wife, Grace? Like…what the actual heck was that? Where does that even happen? The temerity!

Don’t even get me started with the maid’s disrespect towards the Pastor’s wife? Or was Pastor Collins also sleeping with her?

Wait a sec! Was this movie meant to be comedy? Ha! I laugh at the very thought of that! The plot was annoying, even more so, its intended message. We’ll come to that later! Please stick with me!

Direction/Execution:

Now, if this was intended as a faith-based movie, it downright derails even more! Romans 6:1 – “…shall we continue in sin that GRACE may abound?”

What happened to walking away from the marriage when Grace found out about her husband’s lies, deception and self righteousness. I mean, she had the audacity to be seen in public with her lover with such impunity and reckless abandon, right? Moreover, Grace/Nora herself never wanted any of the Church thingy until later in the end after she had satisfied her ‘alter ego’ No consequences to her own action, nothing! So what does the movie preach?

Title:

The movie is titled “Nora’s Lover” At first impression, the signal this sends to a viewer like myself before watching is that the movie would be mostly or partly centred around James being NORA’S LOVER. But no! His role was however unexplored and character left hanging! We only see him with a camera doing some photography (his only client – Nora) in his late Aunty’s house. I was expecting more from that character based off of the title.

For how the movie ended, it’s super underwhelming! I was hoping Nora’s Lover would probably not give up easily, maybe a psychopath or something out of the ordinary! So why give it that title?

Let’s just say “Grace’s Alter Ego” as a title would have been more befitting at the very least!

Observations/Questions:

1. Please make it make sense that for a movie which kept making references to a Pastor and his wife, there was never a Church scene seen throughout. All we saw was House fellowship and women meetings held in the Pastor’s house.

2. Why do script writers in recent times make it seem like all Pastors starve their wives of sëx when they supposedly turn to God? Same thing happened in Emem Isong’s “A Million Mercies” Someone please educate me!

3. Another element that is becoming rampant in Nollywood movies is couples having ‘audio children’ (kids we hear about but don’t see). Only phone calls. Maka why?

4. Makeup/Costuming: What was all those outfits and colours Deaconess Eby had on her nearly all through? A subtle reference to & mention of the Executive producer’s movie “COLOURS”? That movie wasn’t much of a success either.

5. Outcome/Lesson: What message did this movie pass for crying out loud? Oh! That when a husband cheats, his wife should cheat back as a revenge and then boom! his senses will automatically come back! Yeah right! Someone’s taking notes…!

6. Some cringeworthy plus eye roll moments for me there on the couch with Nora/Grace & James frolicking!

See, there’s more but let’s just leave it here!

Conclusion:

Given a very good casting, this had the potential to be interesting but it failed to impress, wasn’t compelling, engaging nor entertaining.

Deaconess Eby’s constant bickering and condescending attitude towards a supposed pastor’s wife in her own house irked me so much! At the start, I thought she was Grace’s mother or sister-in law! I just wished the writer had not taken the Church route. Perhaps, I’d have been less upset!

Well, at the end of the day, this may very well be someone’s best movie of 2025 yet but absolutely not my cup of tea! Had to just put a number to my score as seen above!