‘When Love Comes Knocking’ is a movie written by Abiodun Oluwadurotimi and directed by Mamuzo Sam Oyas. The movie navigates through the story of Reagan (Kenneth Nwadike) who has his father breathing down his neck to start a family. If you are an African or grew up in an African home, you definitely will appreciate the pressure to start a family after attaining a certain age.
It is a beautiful morning and Reagan is ready for work, but his mechanic has not returned his car. He had no choice than to order a taxi for work that day. The driver of the taxi turned out to be Sophia (Chinenye Ulaegbu) a self reliant and an ambitious woman who wants to be her own boss. After a rough start, Reagan and Sofia became more close.
Reagan has feelings for Sophia, but he is already having a thing with his employee Annastacia (Sandra Ifudu). Though the two are not officially dating, Anna as she is referred to has developed strong feelings for Reagan. Lucas (Chidi Dike) a colleague employee will obviously bare the complains from Anna as Reagan moves closer to Sophia.
Reagan finally made his move, but Anna will not give up without a fight. She will do everything to ensure that Sophia and Reagan will not work. Matilda, the roommate of Sophia who has a perception about men will do what she thinks is right to prevent Sophia from being with Reagan. But karma has a way of dealing with people.
The director of the movie employed the use of flashbacks to introduce some plot twists. Though some of the flashbacks were effective, others look disjointed to the plot of the story. At some points you become confused, asking yourself what is this scene communicating? Not to forget that the first 45 minutes of the move contained some scenes that only contributed to the time and not the plot. Some cutaways (B-rolls) were not appropriately used.
The characters put up their best performances considering the fact that the writing did not give them much to do. Kenneth and Chinenye delivered some outstanding performances. Also the performance of Sandra Ifudu and Chidi Dike can not be overlooked. The story carries a good message, but the writing did not do justice to the message. There are a lot of “what is happening?” moments when watching the movie.
At one point Reagan in a flashback tells Sophia about his company getting liquidated.At another point, Lucas (Chidi Dike) in a single line tells us that, it was all a prank. So is Sophia aware it was a prank? Also, Reagan calls Sophia to come to his house, he tells her how he feels, Sophia is skeptical. The next moment she is in the kitchen cooking. What is happening? Are there some scenes that were mistakenly left out? A more confident writing and directing would have turned the story into a spectacle.
Yes, there are moments you will question yourself about somethings happening in the movie that turn to confuse you. But you will also enjoy the thrills and twits depicted in the movie.
‘When Love Comes Knocking’ is currently streaming on YouTube on Royal Arts TV channel.
