The Devil is a Liar: Movie Review

The devil is indeed a liar and a cunning one at that. The title sounds like something my mom would say after a traumatic event and that's what this movie is about. This movie is a recent movie and was released this year, it was a really nice one to watch and even the title grabbed my attention instantly. I am usually not a Nollywood kind of person, I rarely watch Nollywood movies but my brother convinced me otherwise, so I watched with him.

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The devil is a lair follows a successful and ambitious realtor living in Lagos, called Adaora. She marries Jaiye, a younger fashion designer. The tales quickly unravel from love to manipulation, betrayal, tragedy, and a jail sentence. Adaora jumps to quickly into the marriage due to the pressure and the longing for marriage and motherhood, with her younger sister getting married first the pressure increases. She swiftly gets married to Jaiye despite the fact that they've just been dating for two months and he is years younger than her. I should have known something was off when Jaiye proposed to her out of the blue, it was all so sudden and I could tell Jaiye could see her desperation and that why it was easy to carry out his plan.

Tension rises when Adaora asks for a child and Jaiye want nothing to do with it, he claims he's not ready for a child and wants to settle on his career, he gives Adaora an ultimatum, either she invests in his business or she could forget having a child. She concedes and give birth to her first child. Things go well both for Jaiye as his career blooms and Adaora as she gets a shot at motherhood but Adaora want more and Jaiye wants nothing of it, as she wants a second child. She gets pregnant again and Jaiye wants her to remove it, using her desperation to keep the marriage as fuel.

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The painful part of watching this movie was that I could really see the potential it has, it explores really strong themes like gender pressure, betrayal, and real societal struggles. It shows how much pressure to get married can make one fall in love with the wrong person just because you are "getting too old" and how most people are manipulated and betrayed by someone close. But I feel like which such a strong story, it needed very good actors and a more detailed plot. The actors did well especially Nse Ikpe-Etim’s but I feel like she could do better and Nacny Esime character and other backgrounds character don't really add much to the story. Technical issues too affected the movie like the the sound effects and synchrony of the dialogue. There were so many inconsistencies in the plot. The plot also seemed to improperly plan for, like it was not well written and it weaken the credibility of the story.

In all the movie was worth the watch, it had a strong story, a few inconsistent plot but that's what makes it a Nollywood movie. It has strong performance that would evoke emotions.

It's Abeegail✨😉
Thanks for reading ☺️