Half of a Yellow Sun (2014)

Too much of everything

Must See Movie...

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I have consumed nearly all of Ms Adichie. While I was 'Literature in English' subject teacher in 2012, 'Purple Hibiscus' and 'Half of A Yellow Sun' were in the prescribed literary texts list. Thus, in 2012, my students and I ate Half of A Yellow Sun, even every word and punctuation. Fast forward to 2014 when we geared for the Nigerian release of the movie adaptation, hopes were dashed however when the movie received a tentative ban from the government who feared that it (Half of A Yellow Sun Movie) might incite violence and start a second civil war. "Ok, this movie must be the s**t" but no it wasn't.You can only only imagine how weak and watery the movie script was. But wait, you don't need to imagine, the movie shows it all. I tortured my brain to see the movie 'til the end, and that was because I had read the book. What about people who hadn't read that fine novel? They were served trash. I know a film adaptation cannot do justice to a book of almost 500 pages but Biyi Bandele could have avoided the pitfalls. I'm sure he was awestruck by the novel that he felt he owed CNA a duty to copy and paste everything from the novel into the film ( but he should have been warned). Better still he should have used a 'based upon' approach rather than this verbatim adaptation, and we still would be OK.Getting to the nucleus of what a book is truly about is the cue to an adaptation. I'm not sure Biyi knew that. Maybe now he knows that some scenes were not needed in the movie. However, thank God I read the book.

Half a Yellow Sun is an adaptation of a novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The film is a love story that follows twin sisters who are caught up in the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War in the 1960s.Olanna (Thandie Newton) and Kainene (Anika Noni Rose) have returned to Nigeria after an education in England, they live a well to do life in Nigeria and mix with important people.Olanna moves in with her lover, a revolutionary lecturer Odenigbo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his houseboy Ugwu (John Boyega). It is a complex relationship, his mother dislikes her and wants her son to to marry someone else. She even engineers him to get drunk and have sex with her servant woman which leaves her pregnant.Kainene takes over the family interests and pursues a career in commerce and falls in love with a white British writer, Richard (Joseph Mawle.)Their lives are intertwined with the Igbo peoples struggle to establish the independent country of Biafra and the brutal civil war that followed. Olanna struggles hardship, with no money or even a house to live in, moving from place to place and escaping the bombs. Kainene thrives dealing in the black market.The story comes across like a soap opera, at one point Olanna sleeps with Richard as an act of revenge. The plot also confuses you if you are not familiar with the history of the region. Some of the writing is a bit languid but the actors deliver heartfelt performances although it is a choppy melodrama.

This movie is one that captured and then diminished my interest,but then captured it again. I have seen many movies that aim to depict the struggle of a people. Often they are tainted by Hollywood-style productions, which tend to dilute the emotional power they would otherwise have.Unfortunately, there was some of this here. However. Perhaps the majority of its viewers are fully aware of the tragic history of Nigeria in this era, including the formation of Biafra and the horrors in the aftermath of independence. For those who are, I would imagine that the telling of the story would be as gratefully appreciated as would food to the hungry. We in the west have not been graced with most of that history, because, unlike the Middle East and Eastern Europe, it has not been deemed relevant to our historical consciousness. So you might say that rating this movie could be guided by the need for bread, rather than the quest for bon-bons. I do not think the acting was bad, though it was not great. The level of trauma endured by those in the focus of the movie ( both the citizens generally and the main characters) puts in perspective what first world people have difficulty grasping, and lends insight into the reality that within every crisis there are still choices of conduct, and how these matter. I would have liked more linking of the role of the U.S. and Europe, specifically England, to the misfortunes of Nigeria- perhaps that was beyond the movie's scope. The footage in any case showed the cold, calculating mentality of the Royal Family as well as the English media in their involvement.The debate within political circles, and especially around the issue of 'the revolutionary', casts light on how misplaced optimism is so easily generated when change is desired. The ending, an update on the lives of the family,saved the viewers from the final insult of these lives being entirely frustrated by the debacle. Maybe that's a sentimental observation, but that's how it felt to me. I have seen Nigerian films that are nothing but soap operas, though even these have their merits, despite the protests of the high art crowd. I have seen movies such as 'Missing' by the noted director Costa-Gavras, that did not measurably exceed this in transcending Hollywood to tell an important story. So, you might say that this is a promising start for a new director. As an aside, and in conclusion, the name Nigeria comes up in a spell check, but not Biafra.

Remember to see the end of the review I got to know about this movie when my very good friend told me about it and the actors and I was like what? How can Chiwetel Ejiofor act in a Nigeria based movie,I know the movie has to do with UK and stuff but it was mainly in Nigeria. I know he's a Nigerian but,well I guess he gets paid to act,let's get back to the movie. The movie's talking about what a tribe in Nigeria did in the past just to gain independence and become a republic and how a man and his wife suffered from it and some other stuff going on in their life. I don't really watch Nigerian movies because I have got lot of hate for the country and his people but I wanted to watch this movie BC Chiwetel Ejiofor was in it. The one thing I didn't get is why the hell would you budget N1.60billion on a Nigeria movie that's rubbish,but you got top actors in it tho but it still ain't worth it. Its a really really nice movie for Nigerians and some others not just my type of movie. Its getting a 5+2 for Chiwetel Ejiofor being in it. Must watch Well if you don't agree with my review or you got any arguments,tweet me @iamowomizz