Ramsey Nouah and Yinka Olukunga in ‘The Perfect Church’

 

It was tempting to watch and see what ‘The Perfect Church’ had to offer that Nollywood had not served up a million times before.

The religious satire from Wale Adenuga Productions is a screen adaptation of Ebi Akpeti’s novel of the same title. Unusually for a Nollywood picture, The Perfect Church lampoons, albeit not too hard, but the difference from the rest of the pack is clear. Cheating husbands, homosexuals, ‘carnal believers’ and desperate singles are some of the awkward vehicles moving the story’s plot.

Perfect by Name

The movie, directed by Bambo Adebajo, opens aptly during Sunday service. A choir session is ongoing in Pastor Benson’s ‘The Perfect Church’. Ramsey Nouah is fitting in his role as Benson, shepherd of the perfect flock. It is not the first time Nouah will be playing a pastor, though. He played a similar role in ‘Church Business’, another religious satire from 2003.

Leading praise and worship with the ‘voice of an angel’ is Sister Angela, played by Funke Akindele, a senator’s mistress. The pastor’s sermon on marriage is a winner with the congregation and they rush to gush to the pastor about how moving it is: the congregation is in awe of its pastor and the pastor is proud of his followers.

Alas, the key players in the church’s activities are living a lie. Things in the Church are not exactly as they seem. We are soon introduced to the ‘who’s who of what’s what’ in The Perfect Church.

Mr and Mrs. Ojo are the church’s perfect couple, superbly portrayed by Hakeem Rahman and Ngozi Ezeonu. Pastor Benson cites them as examples of what a perfect marriage should be and hopes the rest of the church will emulate their ‘exemplary’ union.

Norbert Young is Mrs Ojo’s former husband, who brings back good and bad memories. Jibola Daboh is the distinguished Senator Val, lover to Sister Angela. Despite having only a cameo appearance, Val is not easily forgotten and in a movie filled with very bad men, Daboh joins Rahman as its super-villains.

The church’s head usher, anxious to marry above his status, soon dips his hands into the money box, much like Judas Iscariot before him. Needless to say, the Pastor did feel betrayed. Same for Yinka Olukunga in her role as the devoted, desperate church sister eager to become Pastor Mrs. Benson. She indulges in unsolicited ‘cooler’ ministry and has the courage to propose to the Pastor after she is convinced that reception was loud and clear when her prayers revealed she would be the handsome preacher’s life partner. Benson, however, has other interests.

Imperfect by Nature

The much-anticipated visit by Bishop Williams is the catalyst for the unfurling and the collapse of the sandcastle that is the Perfect Church. Acted excellently by Olu Jacobs, it is hard not to fall under the spell of the Bishop, who soon has all and sundry confessing to myriad sins. It is during his altar call that we see that there are more sinners than previously believed. It was easier to have simply said ‘Go and sin no more’ to the residents of this contemporary Sodom and Gomorrah.

The picture ends happily for some; two go to jail for attempted murder and one to hell for suicide. On its part, the audience is acquainted with a narrator we never knew existed. She obliges us – as she does the visiting students from a private secondary school - with an epilogue on the Perfect Church Saga. There is hope that a change in the church’s name will herald a change in its nature.

The Perfect Church is not the perfect movie. In its search for complexity, there are too many flashbacks rather than authentic twists and revelations that could task the audience’s imagination. The hints to the pastor’s darker side are merely glossed over and we don’t feel the punch or essence of this until the climactic moment of disclosure. The emphasis appears more on the flock than on the shepherd and at the end, the pastor’s misfortune seems not to matter so much. Not even to his flock whose awe swiftly turns to disgust.

His comeuppance at the end of the movie is also unrealistic and more of a cowardly act. In fact, the unexpected suggestion by a child in the audience to ‘Kill all of them; just kill them’ sounded like a more logical option than the pastor’s eventual choice.

No Part Two

‘The Perfect Church’ does not draw a clear line for itself between a satire and a moralist play or a Greek tragedy. At some points, it preaches forgiveness and also mocks the same; it hails courage but then takes the easy way out; it satirises and also pampers.

The subtitles were sometimes faulty and some of the grammatical howlers strike you in the face like a bad day in history.

The movie however makes up for its flaws with humorous lines and action. Beneath the humour also lies a pointer to the thought that, in reality, no perfect flock exists and the lesson that sin does not pay...

Even though it seemed like another episode of Super Story, there is no promise of a sequel. See it if you love Nollywood; see it if you hate Nollywood..