By Jibril Sado
A good thing, it is said, cannot possibly remain hidden or in obscurity forever. In the case of Nollywood actress Nse Ikpe-Etim, this could hardly be truer. Her thespian star continues to grow in such a way that one can no longer ignore her acting prowess or discuss her honestly as a side dish in Nollywood. Mr. & Mrs., one of her more recent movies certainly makes a good case for her in this regard.
Mr. & Mrs. is a romantic drama featuring Nse as Mrs. Kenneth Abah and Benjamin Joseph as her irreverent husband. The movie tells the story of a much-maltreated young woman who decides to repair her lopsided marital relationship with her domineering, class-obsessed husband by seizing a lifeline inadvertently thrown her way by the husband and his overbearing mother. Susan, a drycleaner’s daughter (well, to the Abahs he is a washman but Susan insists he be called drycleaner) meets and falls in love with Kenneth, the son of a politician and they eventually get married. As Ken’s father’s political fortunes improve, Ken convinces Susan to become a fulltime housewife since, courtesy his getting more oil blocks, Ken now makes “enough money to take care of a community”.
Things, however, turn sour as Ken begins to treat Susan with disdain. He even cheats on her blatantly and torments her verbally, reminding her of her “wretched” background. Once, following a quarrel, he tells her she can leave the marriage if she feels uncomfortable with the state of affairs. His mother (played by Barbara Soky) also encourages him to divorce the “ingrate”. Emotionally-drained, Susan consults a counsellor, Mrs. Brown, a psychologist-cum-lawyer. Subsequently, what Ken initially planned as a mere threat to make Susan meeker and more sober quickly grows beyond his control. To the surprise of mother and son, Susan insists she also wants out of the marriage, this coming at a time when Ken’s father is vying for governorship. So, while Ken’s mother wants a divorce, she also craves assurance that no resultant scandal would affect her husband’s chances at the polls. She thus proposes a compromise in which, although the couple would be officially divorced, they must remain in Ken’s house and pretend to still be married until after the election. Susan gleefully accedes, but Ken, taken aback by her enthusiastic accord, hesitates until his mum and Mrs. Brown cajole him. Under the arrangement, Mrs. Brown grants the couple confidential divorce and they are to live in separate wings of the same house with not the slightest obligation to each other.
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