The Phobia

Main Actors/Actresses
Muna Obiekwe - Jacob
Betty Njoku - Sarah
Lilian Dizo - Tamara (Jake's mother)
Seun Akindele - Mike (Muna's wife's ex and close friend)
Ted - Jim Iyke
Tonto Dike - Tamara Jake's wife

Synopsis -
Jacob marries his wife believing that she  is a virgin and on the wedding night - he gets the surprise of his life when his 'innocent virgin wife' corrects that supposition.  He decides to teach her a lesson and goes all out to be mean, abusive and horrid.  His wife puts up with him for four years of this horrid treatment until he does the unthinkable and she is forced  to reexamine her stance on marriage, him and commitment.  The basic premise of the story is how often people allow their in securities/fears (phobia) play a determining role in their relationships. The second idea shared through the movie is how much our environment growing up can play a role in how we view and behave in relationships.

My thoughts:
"You misrepresented yourself to me as chaste and untouched but you aren't different from all the other whores. The same thing.  I don't want anything to do with you".  Ehn!  For my honeymoon bed this nonsense is taking place.  At that point, I would be like , "Oga sir, are you for freaking real?" Like seriously!!!  Ehn, how many ashawos you don visit that you know I am no different.  But, I guess the love wantintin was still shacking her and she decides to stay put even when he makes her stop working, abuses her and does all sorts to  abuse her.  

Personally, at that point, I was waiting for the Juju byline to start.  Because, it is only Juju I know that can make someone put up with something like this.  But there was no Juju, she was seriously trying to do Christian wife but the more she submits, the more abusive he becomes but she is stubborn and she swears that she will make the marriage work.  Even when he refuses to make love to her for four years.  She keeps on trying and saves his life several times.  

Now, as the story unwinds, we learn about Jacob's relationship with his parents and how this relationship builds up to the fear that he has of commitment and how he feels that he needs to test out all relationships for loyalty and faithfulness. This fear also leads him to do the almost unforgivable.  Now, this movie is quite a serious one, so the script writer does a good job of mixing in humor by introducing Jake's best friend (Jim Iyke) and his talkative, no nonsense taking wife.   Their relationship is quite comical to watch and acts as a perfect juxtaposition to the horror that we see play out between Jake and his wife.  We see how marriage is really supposed to be  - a coming together of friends who really want to stay together forever even when they are having the most horrible of fights.  For a fit of laughter, don't go anywhere when the cooking argument takes place between Jake's best friend (Jim Iyke) and his wife.  That part will have you rolling with laughter.

Now, a couple of places had me going, 'like really?' and they were:
a) Where was Tamara (Jake's wife's) family when this was going down.  Now Tamara is obviously Igbo and from what I know of Igbo culture, they tend to be overprotective when it comes to their girls.  I wondered when Tamara's male cousins will take Jake for a little walk.  But nothing was forthcoming.

b) Is Tamara okay?  Only a person who has some major 'issues' will put up with something like that for that extent of time.  Personally, no sex in a marriage is legally admissible to get your marriage annulled.  So what made her stay that long.  Some obligatory reasons.  Some self esteem issues.  I felt that they should have really built on Tamara's story.  What was Tamara's story?

c) Some scenes don't make sense o!!! - imagine, you are at dinner with guests and you casually mention to everyone, "I think I want a baby" while looking at your husband.  Who does that?  Like really!!!

d) This movie seems to go out of its way to show that being insecure in a relationship is proof of a growing love and attraction.  Sorry - was not buying that. What do I mean?  To show his 'growing love' for his wife -  he monitors her movement and tests her physically to make sure that she was not with other men when he was away.  Like really?  Were the writers on high grade wewe when they were coming up with that?  I can think of interesting ways that a man can show a growing attraction and love for his wife and they all don't involve testing physically, abusing or monitoring of movement.

e) Towards the end of the movie - the background noise was overwhelming but that was the only place.  You can still follow but if you are watching the movie with a critical eye, you might need to mention that.  

Should you watch?

Yes. It is a well told and thought out story.   It was interesting seeing Muna Obiekwe and Tonto Dike act normal parts.  I had gotten tired of Tonto and Muna doing some weird things in movies.  It was also interesting to note the Freudian slip that occurred in the movie.  Watch it to catch it.   You can't run away from your past unless you face it squarely. A lesson to be learnt in the movie.  

The second lesson was that  if you want to love someone, you must love them in their totality - faults and all.  How sweet! But, personally, I am totally against movies that point abuse - physical, emotional or otherwise as cute and romantic. So on that  sub theme they get a #fail.

Rating - 80 percent.  You can get this movie via Africantitles.  One of our partners on this site.

Source - www. pamelastitch.com - where we tell our Diasporan Stories