Okoro's first contract

Not too long ago, when one read “A so-and-so film”, one understood it as a movie coming from a well-established director, producer or writer such as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg,  Ousmane Sembene or nearer home Kwaw Ansah or Shirley Frimpong- Manso.

These days, however, it appears the tag has been extended to actors and therefore we now  have “A Yvonne Okoro” film as is currently making the rounds with the very admirable movie, Contract.
Contract is the kind of movie that a newspaper review should spare because the more elaborate the review, the less it will  benefit the movie.

This is because the strength of the movie lies in its unexpected twists and turns. When these are discussed in an open forum of a review, it kind of takes away the oohs and aahs of the person who is yet to see it.

A beautiful story. Successful businessman Peter Popolampo is the ultimate alpha male. He is 40 years old, rich, and a staunch bachelor. Despite his mother’s persistent attempts to find him a woman, Peter sticks to his rule of non-committal casual dates, freedom and controlling his life until a yearning to have a child arises.

 In his quest to find the woman who will take his money, have his child and disappear, Peter begins a roller coaster, contracted relationship with Abena Boateng, a crude but clever local girl who is anything but impressed with Peter’s affluence. With a clear definitive contract outlining the dos and don’ts of bearing Peter Popolampo’s child, these two opposites must exercise every ounce of will power not to kill each other until the child is born.

Yvonne Okoro plays the lead role in Contract and appears to outdo herself with some fine acting, finer than she does in earlier appearances such as 4 Play, Why Marry, Desperate To Survive and The Game.

A pity that her character, Abena, is not very well developed in Contract thus leaving  viewers wondering whether she was indeed the “okuraseni” living in the city as viewers are made to believe.

Again, what is her motivation for allowing herself to be turned into a baby incubator? If she needed money that badly to take care of her dying sister, it was not convincingly established.

However, bringing in two new faces Hlomla Dandala from South Africa and Benjamin Joseph from Nigeria was a good move that offers freshness to Ghanaian viewers and perhaps more important, make other viewers from South Africa and Nigeria associate better with the movie.

Trust Shirley Frimpong-Manso to make good of her role as director. Images are clean and help  to tell a good story. No viewer would miss the ill-filling clothes of Abena or the no-cut movement of camera as she takes a lift to a next floor.

When it comes to treatment of sex scenes, perhaps no Ghanaian director, dead or alive, has done it as well as Shirley. Following on the success she achieves with The Perfect Picture, she revisits her artistic treatment of sex in Contract to the admiration of viewers.

With a good story, a cast of good actors and remarkable treatment,Contract definitely stands out as one of the best movies to come out of Ghana in the last couple of years.

Not too long ago, when one read “A so-and-so film”, one understood it as a movie coming from a well-established director, producer or writer such as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg,  Ousmane Sembene or nearer home Kwaw Ansah or Shirley Frimpong- Manso.

These days, however, it appears the tag has been extended to actors and therefore we now have “A Yvonne Okoro” film as is currently making the rounds with the very admirable movie, Contract.

Contract is the kind of movie that a newspaper review should spare because the more elaborate the review, the less it will benefit the movie.

This is because the strength of the movie lies in its unexpected twists and turns. When these are discussed in an open forum of a review, it kind of takes away the oohs and aahs of the person who is yet to see it.

A beautiful story. Successful businessman Peter Popolampo is the ultimate alpha male. He is 40 years old, rich, and a staunch bachelor. Despite his mother’s persistent attempts to find him a woman, Peter sticks to his rule of non-committal casual dates, freedom and controlling his life until a yearning to have a child arises.

In his quest to find the woman who will take his money, have his child and disappear, Peter begins a roller coaster, contracted relationship with Abena Boateng, a crude but clever local girl who is anything but impressed with Peter’s affluence. With a clear definitive contract outlining the dos and don’ts of bearing Peter Popolampo’s child, these two opposites must exercise every ounce of will power not to kill each other until the child is born.

Yvonne Okoro plays the lead role in Contract and appears to outdo herself with some fine acting, finer than she does in earlier appearances such as 4 Play, Why Marry, Desperate To Survive and The Game.

A pity that her character, Abena, is not very well developed in Contract thus leaving viewers wondering whether she was indeed the “okuraseni” living in the city as viewers are made to believe.

Again, what is her motivation for allowing herself to be turned into a baby incubator? If she needed money that badly to take care of her dying sister, it was not convincingly established.

However, bringing in two new faces Hlomla Dandala from South Africa and Benjamin Joseph from Nigeria was a good move that offers freshness to Ghanaian viewers and perhaps more important, make other viewers from South Africa and Nigeria associate better with the movie.

Trust Shirley Frimpong-Manso to make good of her role as director. Images are clean and help to tell a good story. No viewer would miss the ill-filling clothes of Abena or the no-cut movement of camera as she takes a lift to a next floor.

When it comes to treatment of sex scenes, perhaps no Ghanaian director, dead or alive, has done it as well as Shirley. Following on the success she achieves with The Perfect Picture, she revisits her artistic treatment of sex in Contract to the admiration of viewers.

With a good story, a cast of good actors and remarkable treatment, Contract definitely stands out as one of the best movies to come out of Ghana in the last couple of years.

By Nanabanyin Dadson