So much pomp, so much pageantry, so much of counting eggs before they are hatched, that includes my humble self and now we eat dust. I heard so many bad reviews about The Perfect Picture, I was so hesitant to watch it. I did. I simply gaped and gawked at the sheer un-originality of the piece, the collage of every single popular black American movie based off of Tyler Perrys why did I get married idea.
At this point, I am ready to give up on Shirley. There is no hope for her unless she is ready to talk to people from whom she can accept criticism. She is doing to her movies the same thing she did to the Miss Ghana franchise, noise noise and nothing of substance emerges. she will soon be known for making empty noises.
I even forget the names of the characters. Jackie and Chris are married and cannot have sex. Naa Ashokor is a corporate woman in love with an arrogant man and the other plump lady is a bed romping woman.
The bed romper suddenly falls in mad love with her boss. Naa falls for her air condition repairer who just happens to be a rich man in disguise and Jackie and Chris still cannot get their intimacy on.
WHY?
how can an elegant woman agree to take a ride from an air condition repairer? no friends in her office? She just had to invite him in that same day and they have sex cos they have so much in common. Hallo, this is the real world, we are not aliens, stop playing on our intelligence.
The user of men suddenly agrees to date her boss and he is the only one who is able to stop her from using men? How? what was their connection? that one moment of passing files in the office? oh, Shirley. This one is too simplistic and excuse me, very foolish to set up.
Jackie and Chris. They cannot have sex, why? why? whose fault is it? Is Jackie too preppy? is Chris stressed or worried? How come he is able to have an erection for Jackie’s friend? What in the world was that motivation? So they break up and each to his own. They both go on an online dating service and DRUM-ROLL JUST HAPPEN TO START BLIND DATING EACH OTHER.
Ah ah. I counted more happenstances in this movie than I counted in miracles of Jesus. In fact someone commented even the sex scene was copied from the 300 movie. I went back to watch 300 again and yes, she copied the sex scene composition from 300. Then the James bond sound track? Should we alert MGM? My opinion is that Shirley thinks Ghanaian are so simple minded, she will slap on a 2000 dollar letus adapter onto a JVC “olds-mobile” HVX, find a 50mm lens and fool them with some lame story with American dramatizations and walk away with an arm load of cash. I hate all forms of exploitation. Well, some Ghanaians did fall for it. Not all though.
To say I am hurt and disappointed is putting it mildly.Words cannot describe how I feel about this movie. With all the trappings of a camera, nothing special happened with the cinematography. No color correction, they crossed directorial lines like no ones business, text book compositions and over-all a simplistically put together package.
What really got me was the heavy American influence. Is this woman that insecure she cannot tell stories from her home? This Chris Attoh boy, what is he? An answer to her prayers? Or is it the pseudo British, pseudo American wannabee-ism? Tom Cruise? Will Smith? Where are we really going? Scorned was a disappointment, Life and living it was great, not perfect but great. Now she has completely gone haywire.
I am truly short of words. But Skyflies, a member of one of my favorite forums, naijarules put it succinctly for me:
COMMENTS ARE FROM NAIJARULES.COM NOT FROM JOY!!
SKYFLIES
What is this nonsense? Is this a black American movie or an African movie??
Fake! Fake!! Fake!!!
This Shirley woman is a wannabe with the whole American concept, no originality in the movie at all. Did she grow up in US or what? Whats the noise about her sef??
To even see that all the actors are so into jerking American thing is very disgraceful and fake.
Waste of money for me! I know where to buy or even rip off good black American movies when I want to see one, I was hoping to see an African movie and not a wannabe black American film in a Ghanaian environment.
Abeg make Leila do release her epic tales. this Shit-ley of a woman wants to kill me with this wannabe American movie.
SOME MORE COMMENTS THAT ECHOED MY SENTIMENTS
FROM TRUFORIA
Shirley Frimpong Manso is a Hack
Shirley Frimpong Manso is a technically efficient film director who lacks two key ingredients needed to make A-M-A-Z-I-N-G movies; Creativity & Originality!
Her movies are forgettable, her movies are for the moment, and her movies have no soul…HER SOUL!
They possess the souls of others, and that is exactly the problem.
I have yet to see a movie directed by Shirley Frimpong Manso that is 100% solely from the MIND of Shirley Frimpong Manso.
Shirley, you seem to have a very competent film crew in the form of SPARROW; one question…”Who are your writers?”
The writer(s) will forever be the foundation and backbone of cinema and the performing arts.
I’m looking forward to your next project!
TRU
filed Marshall
I watched “The Perfect Picture” (on a single DVD, parts 1, 2 & 3)this past weekend. What was the point of continuously displaying the vendors phone number and antipiracy warning the entire length of the movie Then they also had a logo permanently stuck of the bottom right of the screen, like you see on ABC, NBC or CBS television. Abi, dis no be Film again? I felt like I was watching a complimentary copy. Some of the scenes were very unrealistic to me. Was this story set in Ghana or in some Western country? For the life of me which pesin, for Ghana, dey cook, and chop HOT DOGS for house? Then there was the James Bond theme song which was used inappropriately in one of the scenes. I hope they took permission from the James Bond franchise for the use of that Music Score. Don’t get me wrong the movie was a breath of fresh air compared to Nollywood movies. The Audio was well balanced, color was corrected and the Film was well edited. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’m giving it a 9. I enjoyed it.
Black butterfly, Angela81, samira all had great things to say, much of which is a repertoire of my post. visit naijarules to read more comments.
I think I will stay with South African movies for now. I am tired of the crap. I do have hope for one movie coming out though. I am trying to secure a quick interview with the Director and producer. Stay tuned in.
By Joy Della Ocloo for nigeriafilms.com
