By Amadi Chimaobi Kingsley
A popular Pidgin English adage says; na from Wednesday you go know as weekend go dey, this too, is true with some movies.
From the trailer, you can almost tell if the movie will be an easy or hard watch. With Water and Garri, the trailer left nothing to desire, and the movie pretty much carried on with the same passionless state. Tiwa Savage was the star of the show and the directors made sure we did not forget that as the cameras kept on focusing on her star power and the technical angle was great, the costuming was also good, with the fabrics matching the same theme as the setting; colorful and artistic. The soundtrack was awesome. Every single song that came on was a bop and you could see Tiwa’s touch in the production. but there are other more serious problems this film needed to prioritize.
The dialogues are sappy and suspiciously improvisational. The general pacing, plot, and line delivery are slow.
The first obvious problem is how much telling is going on with the voice overs, and how badly delivered they are. There is nothing the voice overs supplied to the film that it didn’t already have visually. It quickly became a superfluous baggage to a sagging film.
Tiwa just proved to us that she is a better musician than an actress, who plays the lead here. She clearly has levels to climb as an actress. There is a polished, controlled texture to her performance that doesn’t translate as truly acting. Every line, every gesture is carried with such control that it does not come across as real. The child actors and majority of the extras are clearly amateurs. Their performances are on the other end of Tiwa’s, expressed with an exaggerated, almost comical severity.
There is no solid antagonist, just a random guy completing a superficial arc. That is intriguing because he’s the only character in the entire film with a believably earned arc. But for a large chunk of this work, it feels very cringe as a film.
Also, there is something to be said of the random rivalry between Kay (Yaw-Bunting) and the other nameless thug, which brings us to another thing that was off; there was no proper fleshing of characters- their interests, their motivations, their goals. We just had random stuff thrown at us at every curve. Why is Aisha (Tiwa Savage) back home to support a friend whose cousin died three months ago? Is that a strong enough reason to return after years of being away? Some would argue not, especially as three months had passed anyway. Stephany (Jemima Osunde) seemed bubbly enough through most of the movie, so, she clearly didn’t need this support Aisha was bringing. Is it not also convenient that the emotional supporter was hopping on a bike at the first sight of her old-time lover, who she had been trying to dodge just moments earlier? All this, on the same day you arrived from a long trip abroad? Haba!
Through the early parts of the movie, we kept hearing, “East Side” has changed, and it was supposed to give off the idea that it had gotten worse than it was before Aisha (Tiwa Savage) left, but we never quite see that from any of the flashbacks. It seemed like a dead town from flashbacks, and the present still makes it seem like a hopeless town without any trace of violence.
Another major issue one had was with the pacing. Every scene should have a purpose, driving the story forward, but at times, it felt sluggish, leaving the viewer waiting for something more impactful. And let’s talk about the title— “Water and Garri.” It just didn’t seem to capture the depth of the story, which one believes should have focused more on the protagonist’s relationship with her grandmother and her past.
The end finally came with a predictable twist. When we arrive at the closing scene, there is the fatigue one gets from ingesting too much sugar which, you must agree, is about apt for a film titled Water and Garri.
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And Tiwa Serves Water And Garri Hot, Cold
By Amadi Chimaobi Kingsley
A popular Pidgin English adage says; na from Wednesday you go know as weekend go dey, this too, is true with some movies.
From the trailer, you can almost tell if the movie will be an easy or hard watch. With Water and Garri, the trailer left nothing to desire, and the movie pretty much carried on with the same passionless state. Tiwa Savage was the star of the show and the directors made sure we did not forget that as the cameras kept on focusing on her star power and the technical angle was great, the costuming was also good, with the fabrics matching the same theme as the setting; colorful and artistic. The soundtrack was awesome. Every single song that came on was a bop and you could see Tiwa’s touch in the production. but there are other more serious problems this film needed to prioritize.
The dialogues are sappy and suspiciously improvisational. The general pacing, plot, and line delivery are slow.
The first obvious problem is how much telling is going on with the voice overs, and how badly delivered they are. There is nothing the voice overs supplied to the film that it didn’t already have visually. It quickly became a superfluous baggage to a sagging film.
Tiwa just proved to us that she is a better musician than an actress, who plays the lead here. She clearly has levels to climb as an actress. There is a polished, controlled texture to her performance that doesn’t translate as truly acting. Every line, every gesture is carried with such control that it does not come across as real. The child actors and majority of the extras are clearly amateurs. Their performances are on the other end of Tiwa’s, expressed with an exaggerated, almost comical severity.
There is no solid antagonist, just a random guy completing a superficial arc. That is intriguing because he’s the only character in the entire film with a believably earned arc. But for a large chunk of this work, it feels very cringe as a film.
Also, there is something to be said of the random rivalry between Kay (Yaw-Bunting) and the other nameless thug, which brings us to another thing that was off; there was no proper fleshing of characters- their interests, their motivations, their goals. We just had random stuff thrown at us at every curve. Why is Aisha (Tiwa Savage) back home to support a friend whose cousin died three months ago? Is that a strong enough reason to return after years of being away? Some would argue not, especially as three months had passed anyway. Stephany (Jemima Osunde) seemed bubbly enough through most of the movie, so, she clearly didn’t need this support Aisha was bringing. Is it not also convenient that the emotional supporter was hopping on a bike at the first sight of her old-time lover, who she had been trying to dodge just moments earlier? All this, on the same day you arrived from a long trip abroad? Haba!
Through the early parts of the movie, we kept hearing, “East Side” has changed, and it was supposed to give off the idea that it had gotten worse than it was before Aisha (Tiwa Savage) left, but we never quite see that from any of the flashbacks. It seemed like a dead town from flashbacks, and the present still makes it seem like a hopeless town without any trace of violence.
Another major issue one had was with the pacing. Every scene should have a purpose, driving the story forward, but at times, it felt sluggish, leaving the viewer waiting for something more impactful. And let’s talk about the title— “Water and Garri.” It just didn’t seem to capture the depth of the story, which one believes should have focused more on the protagonist’s relationship with her grandmother and her past.
The end finally came with a predictable twist. When we arrive at the closing scene, there is the fatigue one gets from ingesting too much sugar which, you must agree, is about apt for a film titled Water and Garri.
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