MOVIE REVIEW: LOVE IN EVERY WORD

Others are stories which do not need noise to be powerful. Love in Every Word is a story of that nature. This film is so low-key, that it is hardly the type of film that would demand your attention and scream it out to all people passing by- and once it starts I was so hooked that I needed to be reminded that I was actually watching a film. I felt it was part of my life.

As a woman, who is a Nigerian and who understands what it is to live with all those unsaid words and to stay silent to maintain a comfortable state of affairs, something in this film resonated with me. It also reminded me of that one thing we never like to talk about-the thing we do love, we cover up, screen, abandon even just because it is difficult. It awakened to my mind that you do not have to scream to tell a love story but that does not make it any less strong.

The film begins with sophistication. We meet a woman- elegant, still but very clear she is struggling with something of a predator beneath the surface. Beautiful and aggrieved she is somewhat beautiful. She poses as the one who is taught to be strong that the world did not give her a choice. And then we get acquainted with him. Composure and independent but with a doleful eye that is loaded with a thousand regrets. Such a man who has already got used to choking over his words because he fears a word can break.

In fact, interpersonal interaction, their first one does not even need dialog. What can one say about the way they are gazing at one another. There was something said there between them not said, something primitive, something unfinished, something homicidal. No melodrama there. It was indirect.. and the more so the better. As I found out then, this was not another romance. It was going to be an odyssey.

It turns out only as we read the story along that there is some concealed past. A tremendous family secret. And it changes all that. Then she trusts him by his side. The second, I feel I know it is a hoax. She happens to be informed of something or the other, which he should have told her but failed to do so. And it was frightening what his reaction would be when he got around to them, though he did not care. And honestly? It was too actual a dread. I have seen and felt it- the fear of telling the truth because you do not want to lose a person.

The thing that struck me is how the film depicted the silence. The characters did not fail to communicate, but what was not in communication. There is one scene especially, that I cannot stop remembering. She goes through a letter. One which is easy, his handwriting. She goes with it by self. No music. No movement. Breath coming as a shudder, clinging to teensy little bit of him. She reads with shaking hands. I endeavoured to shed a tear over her at the moment. Since not all of the time does the pain come with screaming or with tears.

And he returned my. Not with flowers. It was not sentimental. He came in, just busted in. Didn't say a word. Nervous. Scared. She looked at him and I swear my body stood still. Was she to yell at him? Was she even going to walk away? And might she crack?

Instead she hushed one word: Why?

There was nothing in that one word. Not only a word but heart break, confusion, yearning, love and hurt all bundled up into one word. I cried. Not only what she said but I have asked myself too. I have wondered Why in the still of the night, When there never has been a reply.

Then he answered as follows. Simple, direct and catchy: love lay in every word unspoken. I froze the motion picture. Hug that one. Heard it twice. And again. --It is the truth,--is it not? There is love so afraid of being shared and yet it is the strongest one. That we creep about secretly. What we want the other chap to feel and that we dare not tell him.

The thing that I most enjoyed in this film is that, it never tried to give us a fairy-tale. It gave us love in reality. Flawed love. Making love. Love that does not necessarily come with the happily after endings under bows yet it somehow manages to live.

She forgave him. Not that she forgot. Not that the hurt disappeared by magic. However, her heart wanted peaceful answers more than answers. That is some types of power many women have- particularly Nigerian women. When we love we know about scars. We realize we can retain love despite it being heavy. This is the movie that did give tribute to this power.

One thing I would like to remark as well--this story was personal. It was more than a film. A mirror was it. I related myself to her. I read my anxieties in him. I observed our silence, our expectations and our culture. This was not a large-scale activity. It had to do with the choice of love even when it hurts.

All was done with much attention (cinematography to acting). The most traumatic are the silent scenes. It was not oppressive music-it led. The emotions were real not artificial. And what was the message? I will cherish the message in them for long.

Love in Every Word teaches me that love does not have to be shouting all the time. It is on pieces of paper. In tears. And through the silence of the sound, one went on his way home. It triggered the memory that forgiveness does not make one weaker- rather it heals. It is resolving to peace rather than pride.

And just in case you happen to read this on some other day and you have ever been hurt by love, or you have been in a scenario where you were not able to forgive somebody, who never told you the whole truth, then, you need to watch this film. You will be moved to tears at it. It can go to the extent of intensifying old hurts. Nevertheless, it will also hold your hand and will say you might be able to heal. Love is not supposed to be flawless to be true.

It is not romantic cinema only. It is also a silent story. As to the choice of speaking, and the choice of forgiving. Of all the Nigerian ladies that ever held their hearts in secret And waited to be heard.

And after all that is what this movie gave me the feeling of representation of.