By Agbo Favour AMARACHI
Finding Me, is another Nollywood actor, Funke Akindele’s creative exploration.
The movie follows the story of Atinuke Phillips played by Funke Akindele, the CEO of Olowo Steel and daughter of the billionaire businessman, Chief Olowo (Dele Odule) as she is trapped in a troubled marriage and grapples with losing herself to a loveless marriage and the quest to find herself again and take control of her life.
Kolawole Phillips (Joseph Benjamin) who is Atinuke’s husband is manipulative, deceitful, and emotionally distant. This setup has all the ingredients for an incisive exploration of emotional manipulation, power imbalances, and societal pressures. Instead, the film becomes burdened by underdeveloped subplots, abrupt tonal shifts, and half-baked resolutions.
One minute we’re dealing with infidelity and family disputes, the next, we are plunged into random comedy routines, to unnecessary fights. Atinuke’s relationship with Anthony (Efa Iwara) is the clearest example of this mess. Their romance appears from nowhere, without any real emotional build-up. There’s a scene right in the middle—Anthony touches Atinuke’s face and says, “Do you trust me?”—and it lands with such jarring emptiness, it makes you pause and wonder, “How did we even know Atinuke does not need another man, one who is everything Kola is not, to find herself or to heal?” Yet, the film stumbles further by framing Atinuke’s journey through a lens that reeks of the male gaze, reducing her empowerment to a new romantic savior rather than an inner triumph. The socio-cultural commentary—meant to critique pressures on women who want to make their marriage work—gets lost in this contradiction, leaving audiences with a hollow shell of a feminist narrative.
Funke Akindele as Tinuke, is far from her best in Finding Me. Her performance is neither impressive nor memorable, but she sustains much of the narrative solely through her established goodwill with audiences. She doesn’t give us her usual comic mannerisms, and that is refreshing. But unfortunately, the character she’s playing lacks enough internal consistency to allow her performance to breathe naturally. Atinuke’s decisions, oscillating between feeling trapped and briefly liberated, are not given the time to develop naturally, leaving her journey feeling superficial. She makes silly decisions; her character remains static; she doesn’t develop as her character journey morphs from trapped to liberated and back to trapped. Her character ends up appearing unwise from the beginning to the end as she doesn’t “find herself”, doesn’t grow genuinely as the situations around her only force her to accept what comes to her
Joseph Benjamin, as Kolawole Philips, played his character to hilarious perfection. On the other hand, he brings a charming and commanding presence that suits his role as the film’s villain.
His character was a degenerate through and through. He introduces himself in the film’s opening scene, making it clear from the get-go just how much of a parasite he is. From nearly choking a mistress to death to gaslighting his wife into handing over ₦500 million for his latest business doomed to fail, Kola operates without an ounce of shame.
You may not worry much about answering these questions because Finding Me doesn’t concern itself with these complexities, breezing past them without a second thought. Drama brews on all fronts. In Atinuke’s family, tensions rise between her and her brother (Femi Adebayo), the presumed “heir apparent” to their father’s company. Despite being favored for leadership, Atinuke makes a catastrophic mistake. The ₦500 million she used to boost Kola’s latest ego trip came from there, a decision that backfired spectacularly. When the siphoning is discovered, her father, heartbroken by her poor judgment, removes her as CEO.
Femi Adebayo as Dotun, in contrast, seems like a more fitting match for Atinuke as her love interest, though he shines in his role as the reckless elder brother, making the most of his limited screen time.
Then there’s Semiu (Abdulgafar Abiola ‘Cute Abiola’), slotted in as comic relief. Normally, this kind of character might derail the seriousness, but surprisingly, his role is one of the better-executed aspects, serving as a bridge between the chaotic tones and one of the films’ few convincing plot devices.
A few minutes before the closing scene, Anthony is arrested. The long-trusted family doctor is exposed as a fraud, revealed to have colluded with Kola to deceive Tinuke about her fertility. Tinuke also admits to her best friend that her son, Denrele, was adopted, something she had kept hidden for years. Kola faces arrest for murder,
While Anthony is suddenly framed and Ndidi his ex-girlfriend, is the dead body found in his car. On top of that, Tinuke, despite having gathered evidence of Kola’s manipulation, openly confronts him and tells him where the evidence is, leading to an expected physical attack. Even her brother steps in, only to get caught up in the chaos.
This final third act is a tale of chaos and convenience; the filmmakers employ many and any plot device to try to save the film but to no avail.
Finding Me is an engaging watch with a powerful message. It serves as a reminder not to lose oneself in the pursuit of pleasing others. It encourages self-love and self-respect, reinforcing the idea that no one can love you more than you love yourself. Through Atinuke’s journey, the audience learns alongside her, absorbing lessons about family, self-worth, and breaking free from outdated societal expectations. The film makes a strong case for discarding harmful cultural norms—women should never feel compelled to remain in toxic marriages for fear of what society will say. Self-preservation must always come first.
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