Movie review: Trade By Bata is a brilliant story, full of drama but poor in comedy

Trade By Bata is a Nollywood comedy drama directed by Biodun Stephen and starring Adebimpe Akintunde, Adediwura Blarkgold, Bukunmi Adeaga-Ilori, Debo Adedayo, Dele Odule, Eso Dike, Solape Ogundimu, and Tomiwa Kukoyi.

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Synopsis: A city girl returns to her village, clashing with its traditions and looking down on the locals. A supernatural twist forces her to speak their dialect, creating chaos when her city boyfriend arrives to exploit her inheritance.

Criticisms First

This movie tries to cash in on the successes of Funke Akindele’s Jenifa franchise and Toyin Abraham’s Alakada franchise. Just like those franchises, Trade By Bata showcases local women who speak poor English and are willing to do anything to mingle with those perceived as the Crème de la crème of society.

However, Trade By Bata seems to be taking us back to 2009 when such movies reigned supreme. Almost everything about it indicates that the movie should have been a YouTube upload, and not for the cinema. If this is Bukunmi Adeaga-Ilori’s way of following the footsteps of Funke Akindele and Toyin Abraham, then she came late to the party.

This movie tags itself as comedic, but we hardly found any reason to laugh. The first 20 minutes had us wondering what the movie was all about. Trade By Bata has so much drama, but the lack of rib-cracking comedy prevented it from being impressive. The character Wale, portrayed by Debo Adedayo a.k.a Mr Macaroni, would have been awesome if it were portrayed by Broda Shaggi, who is a comedic character himself. However, Mr Macaroni did well in the loverboy part of the role.

It was awkward seeing the spelling of the name of the town that this movie is about. The town’s name, Ori Ope, was spelt as Ori Okpe. When the movie started, and a signboard was shown with ‘Welcome to Ori Okpe’. That spelling gave the impression that it wasn’t a Yoruba movie we were about to see. That’s because no word in Yoruba has K and P close to each other. Even though Ori Ope is pronounced Ori Okpe, it should never be spelt that way.

Best Acting Goes To…

It is difficult for us to name the best actor in this movie because two of them stood out. We are talking about Solape Ogundimu and Bukunmi Adeaga-Ilori. Ogundimu was perfect as Fiyinfoluwa the Americana. Her American accent was typical of a proud, blonde White girl. She also killed it when she later switched to a thick Yoruba accent. We would have loved to hand her the award for Best Act if not that Adeaga-Ilori also came with her A-Game as Abebi, the village girl. When Abebi’s voice changed to an American accent, Adeaga-Ilori perfectly executed it, and we enjoyed how she portrayed her character’s new personality. Both actresses deserve the credit.

Another actor who performed well in the only scene he appeared in is Tomiwa Kukoyi, who portrayed a cab driver named Prosper. He spoke English with an Igbotic accent that almost made me think he was an Igbo man. Kudos to Adediwura Blarkgold for her role as a grandmother. We enjoyed her hostility towards the spoilt Fiyifoluwa. It was also interesting seeing them come to terms with each other and form a bond.

Brilliant Story…

During the first 20 minutes of Tarde By Bata, we were almost regretting stepping out to see the movie until the punchline hit us in the face. That was the scene where a voice switch happened. That was a brilliant idea, especially how it was executed by the actresses. We would have loved to say more about that scene, but that would amount to spoilers.

Trade By Bata would have gotten a 7 if it had rib-cracking comedy. But it deserves a 6/10 because of the drama and the acting. It is worth seeing.