This is going to be pretty short.
A sh*tty story. Literally. Lol.
Dinner At My Place is a movie that tells the story of Nonso, a young man who is about to ask the love of his life Chioma to marry him but is unsure about the best way to propose. He resorts to seeking the advice of his best friend Jay and that of his girlfriend Cynthia. After what seems like an intervention session, the idea of an intimate dinner at Nonso’s place. And as a part of the plan, Jay and Cynthia are supposed to come out as a surprise as soon as Chioma accepts the proposal. All things get set up and look perfect until Chioma knocks on the door and Nonso gets tensed and throws the ring in the soup which he had prepared for the dinner. She comes in and they are about to start dinner so he is on the lookout for when she may carry the ring in a scoop, but he doesn’t see anything. In the midst of all of this, a knock on the door is heard. Nonso goes to get the door and finds out it is his ex Bisi that is at the door. She says that she has just had a fight with her roommate and needs a place to sleep for the night. This obviously does not work for Nonso especially seeing that this is supposed to be his big night, so he tries everything possible to dissuade her from coming in but all attempts hit the rock when Chioma comes to the door and asks that Nonso lets Bisi stay. Bisi is apparently an uncouth person so she goes ahead to dish food for herself without being offered. As she is downing large morsels of eba, she chokes on something, and Nonso figures that it is his ring -his $22,000 ring that was his mother’s parting gift to him. The sentimental and monetary value of this ring could not let him ignore it so he sought ways to have Bisi get the ring out of her system. At this point, everyone, including Chioma, Cynthia, Jay is aware of all that has happened. After some thought, they resolved that having Bisi excrete the ring is the best option. So the rest of the story focuses on how to get Bisi to sh*t out the ring. So this is where my first line comes to play. Lol.
So let’s get down to the main business; the review.
For starters, I like that this story has an unconventional tilt towards the comedic genre. Unlike most Nollywood stories that stick to a cliche romantic storyline, this story employs a creative method to narrate the story differently and this is what makes it genius. When it comes to the plot, acting, storyline, costume, and everything about this production, I think that an excellent job was done.
Well…
Except that the movie in itself was unnecessarily long. Scenes were too dragged, conversations were too detailed. A lot more literary techniques should have been employed to tell the story to make it more concise and less tiring. Some scenes were particularly unnecessary, like Bisi trying to get back the ring through a staged heist, and all of that. Also, I understand that an event had to usher in the resolution of the plot, but what happened in the toilet of the hotel that led to Bisi ending up in the hospital was a little clumsy.
Outside this, I think this movie deserves a good 7/10.
