Here Love Lies Review… we underestimated this film
Year: 2023
Genre: Girly, Crime, Romance, Thriller
Cast: Tope Oshin, Tim Shelburne, Omowunmi Dada, Barbara Walsh, Angel Unigwe, Bambi Everson, Tina Mba, Sam Dede, Omozele Gabriel, Daniel Etim-Effiong
Director: Tope Oshin
Writer: Ayoade Adeyanju, Tope Oshin
Cinematographer: Daniel Ademinokan
Summary: After a series of failed romances, Amanda, a young mother, begins a relationship with her American blog follower leading her on an interesting trip to New York
Overall Rating: Feast 
Confession Time🧎🏾♀️🧎🏾♀️🙏🏾🙏🏾
When we watched Here Love Lies’s trailer, we were totally disappointed as we knew it was going to be another one of those Nollywood lovey-dovey stories.
We were so unmotivated, yet still decided to quickly watch the film in order to review and forget about it…
Let’s just say that Tope Oshin took us by surprise and outdid herself!! We were amazedddd 🤓
~Worth Watching~
Delicious
—The storytelling was quite gripping, starting off with young Amanda (Omozele Gabriel) rebuked by her parents due to an unplanned pregnancy.
The writers intentionally invited us to get to know the adult Amanda (Tope Oshin) who was a woman battling a lack of confidence/acceptance and insecurities. She was also carrying the heavy yoke of unforgiveness with her family’s absence of support
The suspense was progressively built up and the mystery revelation even fooled us at the end
—Let’s clap for the makeup and costume design teams who worked hard to pull off stunning looks and provided a good idea for each character 👏🏾
—Who knew Tope Oshin could act???
Wow…She gave us classy madame, fragility, strict mommy, gentleness, weakness, and on top of that, there she went unapologetically threatening someone in Pidgin English on the streets of New York, I meaannnn 😆
—Daniel Ademinokan’s cinematography was impressive in Nigeria. There were great camera movements that teased us and accentuated the storytelling. The lighting was on point
—The editing, again another area that was really engaging. We got to see A LOT of sms, Instagram, and phone animations that poured us into Amanda’s tech world; this lady was hooked to her phone!
—Something that people may miss in this movie is the powerful underlying message it sent out.
Coming from a place of rejection by family and men, Amanda consequently became shattered in her spirit and was never able to heal. This led to making decisions that impacted her life and thus, the writers were calling us to observe and learn
Bland
—[No spoiler intended] The scuffle toward the end was a bit weakly staged with many segments that left us in disbelief.
Plus, there was a noticeable difference between the film’s quality in Nigeria and America.
For example, the cast and cinematography in Nigeria were impeccable, whereas in America, there were a few non-filmic visuals and the acting was so-so (except for Bambi Everson (playing Edna, the caretaker)
But these shortcomings can be overlooked due to the movie’s strong script!
Viewers’ Guide
Language
Trailer
Available on
(Audio: English, Pidgin English; English Subtitles: Yes)
