Blood Sisters Movie Review: A Testament to The Progress of Nollywood

 Ladies and gentlemen,

It gives me great joy to write this review. I’m not just saying this because I liked the movie, it also comes from the part of me that saw a Nigerian movie at the cinema last year and wanted to puke. It was so bad that I wrote a review. I never uploaded the review anywhere, I just really needed to get some things off my chest so I could move forward with my life. That’s how nonsensical it was. It was called Bad boys and Bridesmaids. Watch at your own peril.

It is on such a happy note that I click on my keys to tell you how I feel about this limited Series, Blood sisters.

The poster alone just tells you there's something interesting to look out for. I hope the designer is having a good day.

This story follows two very close friends who share many of life’s experiences, but end up being even more tied together by a dirty (headless and shallowly buried) secret. Let’s get right to it.

It pretty much starts with the engagement of Sarah Duru and Kola Ademola. Now, Kola is the CEO of some big pharmaceutical company that seems like it’s raking in millions and in comparison, the lucky bride is a nobody. 

It gets weird very quickly when Kola makes Sarah change her dress at the party because he preferred another dress. The first thing I thought was “Okay, so…a jerk”. That isn’t even all of it. Sarah’s ex-boyfriend, Kenny, who’s clearly also broke, shows up at the wedding. He aims to stop her from marrying Kola by professing his love to her AT THE VENUE. Genius! That always works. 

He ends up getting bundled out and we later find out that he was roughed up by the personal goon (played by Ramsey Noah) of Kola’s mother.

Hold that thought. Let’s talk about Kola’s mother, Uduak Ademola. Uduak (played by the lovely Kate Henshaw-Nuttal) is the cold, steely head of the family and her husband has passed on. She dotes on Kola and he’s clearly her more favoured son and she despises her older son, Femi (played by Gabriel Afolayan) and her younger daughter, Timehin (Genoveva Umeh).

The reason she favours Kola over the rest is unclear at first, but it starts to make a bit of sense later.

Uduak also loathes Sarah Duru and feels she isn’t anywhere near good enough for her son. Her loathing extends to Sarah’s parents who seem indebted to her somehow and are too glad that their daughter is marrying into such a wealthy family. 

To make sure we’re all on the same page because it’s understandably difficult to keep track of everyone Uduak hates, Uduak hates everyone who isn’t Kola. Period.

The problem with Kola (played by Deyemi Okanlawon) is that he’s an absolute monster who punches his fiance, Sarah (Ini Dima-Okojie) in the stomach in their hotel room at the engagement party because he is upset that her old boyfriend showed up. It is later revealed that he has abused many other women he has been with and even blinded one of them in one eye. He also makes them pose for portraits and draws these images of them while they are in pain. What a sicko.

Sarah’s best friend in the whole wide world, Kemi Sanya (the fabulous Nancy Isime) finds out about the abuse and is very upset because apparently, this isn’t the first time he’s hitting her. 

At the traditional wedding, before it’s time to make her entrance, Sarah comes to the overdue conclusion that she will no longer marry Kola. She then sends for Kola to give him the news and Kola loses his mind and attacks her.

Did I mention that Kola’s older brother Femi hires a hitman to assassinate his brother on his own wedding day? The assassin who isn’t very smart gets spotted and the attempt is foiled. Kola is still alive long enough to try to strangle his fiancé in her hotel room. That is until Kemi, in her friend’s defence, shoots and kills him. Oh, she also beheads him. Spicy!

What follows is a long story of more murders, a compromised investigation, family secrets that start to leak and the adventures of a lovable Chicago ex-cop, Joe. If you’d told me three days ago that I’d be saying "Chicago cop" when writing about a Nollywood movie, I would have absolutely believed you. The thing with Nollywood is they will dare anything. I like the spirit, but pulling it off, however, is another thing entirely. They delivered this time though. Wale Ojo, who played Inspector Joe, did an amazing job. I liked how they managed to throw in an explanation for having someone with that accent in the Nigerian Police Force. I feel like it could have been an easy thing to overlook.

From previous experience, it’s difficult to expect much from a star-studded movie because most times it’s an attempt to distract everyone from a weak plot. But this was a good story, and everyone did what they were meant to, even the extras. As the Gen Z kids say it, they ate and left no crumbs!

I liked that the movie did not sugarcoat any of the issues we’re facing as a country: how easy it is to botch a proper investigation if you’re ready to throw around dollars, how badly the police need a reform and how quickly people can overlook wrongdoing when money is involved. Case in point, Sarah’s mother (Uche Jombo) reacting with “Because of one slap?” when her daughter tells her of Kola’s abuse and her intention to call off the wedding. Honestly, when I watched that scene, I realized again that money doesn’t only give you luxury, it gives you choices and as much dignity as you want to have. I can’t imagine being told my kid is getting hit by their partner and not going berserk. I beg all your available pardons?

I do have some questions though.

What is the story behind Sarah leaving Kenny who clearly loves her to death (spoiler alert, he actually did die) and going for Kola who is an ass? 

I think her family owed the Ademolas a lot of money because after the wedding was called off due to Kola's disappearance, Uduak had court papers sent to the Durus and there was some mention of a loan. 

Sarah didn’t seem like the type to marry a person solely for money. There had to be something else at play there. It wasn’t properly explained.

Also, why was the assassin so…not smart? This man showed up at the wedding dressed in a leather jacket and jeans, the official assassin uniform. At a wedding where everyone’s wearing agbada and expensive lace, you show up dressed like that to kill the groom of all people? It wasn’t just the outfit that made him stand out, he was panting and frowning in an obvious “I’m here to kill somebody” kind of way. Guess who spotted him? The person he came there to kill. This one obviously did not go to assassin school or dropped out halfway or bribed all his teachers till he graduated. He was referred to as a career criminal but he most definitely did not act like it.

Oh, do we leave each other voice messages in Nigeria?

And I also felt a bit strange about how the roadside sellers could easily recognize the people Uncle B (Ramsey Noah) was looking for. 

The older son, Femi (Gabriel Afolayan) and his wife (Kehinde Bankole) deserve their own steamy spin-off because they were going at it like rabbits every chance they got. Also, his wife is more ruthless and ballsy than he is. I’d like to know how they got together in the first place.

If Sarah and Kemi ever read this, please do better with hiding bodies next time.

The acting was the best thing about the movie. I think it was flawless. The story was great too. Nancy Isime’s acting was powerful, not that anyone should be surprised. Gabriel Afolayan deserves all the hype he gets, Kate Henshaw was so...Cersei Lannister, she was beautiful and creepy. I hear this is Genoveva Umeh’s first major role. She should be proud. She was amazing, especially in the closing scene.

There was a scene I particularly liked. I won’t close this review without mentioning it. It was set in the slums of Makoko. When Sarah and Kemi were on the run, Kenny arranged for them to stay in Makoko, but Uduak’s goon found them and to escape, Kemi set the place on fire. I don’t know if it was CGI. If it was, it was really cool considering Nollywood’s bad relationship with CGI. If it wasn’t, even more impressive.

I’d give the limited series a 7.5/10. I won’t be surprised if there’s another series later on to flesh out some of the barer storylines, but it’s also fine if they don’t. They made their point, it was thrilling and suspenseful like they said it would be. Ebonylife TV, Mo Abudu and Temidayo Makanjuola for President.