If you are sceptical about seeing Living in Bondage: Breaking Free, it will be more than understandable. The Nigerian movie industry has spent much of its time making films bordering on the occult and rituals, many of which are overdrawn, overplayed, bland, and rather off-putting. And the Living in Bondage sequel was always going to centre on that. But this sequel to the 27-year-old original isn’t just about getting mystical, and is worth the promise of debuting director Ramsey Nouah, and the hype.
Breaking Free centres on Nnamdi Okeke (Swanky JK), who’s lost his job and has dreams of the luxury life. Breaking Free stands quite apart from the first film of 1992, but there are still correlations and some verisimilitude, Nnamdi is the son of Andy Okeke (played by Kenneth Okonkwo, who was also the star of the 1992 pic), and unlike the one centred on his father, Nnamdi isn’t exactly wallowing in penury, but rather just wants luxury.
And credit to the film for giving us a picture of Nnamdi in that way; he knows about various types of alcohol that he can’t afford and has knowledge of cars above his paygrade. For most part of the film, we see that Nnamdi isn’t so much just thirsting about the high life, but rather overawed by it; watch him arrive at a party in a Ferrari, yet marvel at a fleet of parked Rolls-Royces. See him look a bit out of place at a party, and not quite fitting in.
Nnamdi is aided into the life of affluence by, among others, Richard Williams, CEO of Zion Railways. Played by director Ramsey Nouah, Richard is the head of the spiritual group that affords people the good life (at a price), called The Brotherhood. Throughout the film, Nouah’s character is quite a standout act, introduced into the film with a round of applause, delivered by himself. There’s something of the likeable super villain about him; he’s the devil that quotes the Bible amidst lines of The Godfather, his demeanour is unchanging and unfazed.
Breaking Free has inevitable bouts of spirituality in it, but it’s all done with minimum fuss, and there’s little need for histrionics. From the spiritual conventions to Richard’s display of his powers, there’s no overplaying, those acts that usually seem out of place run well with this film (hence Richard’s cheeky ‘this isn’t Nollywood’ quote in the film).
Breaking Free thrives in many areas, not least the chemistry between characters. We see the closeness between Nnamdi and his brother Tobe (Shawn Faqua), who basically bounce of each other in scenes in which they are together. The relationship between Nnamdi and Kelly (Munachi Abii) has true chemistry, right from the off, and hardly seems forced – even the sex scene looks genuine.
Perhaps the biggest flaw of the movie is the fact that for all of its deluxe acting and directing, Breaking Free doesn’t have that much in terms of being relatable, but that’s a quite minor blot on an otherwise well-crafted work.
At the end of everything, Nnamdi realises the price of luxury is one he can’t quite pay, attempts to end it all, but doesn’t quite do it, and ends up in the hospital. Meanwhile, (some) members of The Brotherhood have been identified, but Richard is still very the unknown.
Breaking Free does a good job of not ending with closure, and keeping part of the mystery alive. Most pertinently, though, it is a good lesson on how to make a movie.
