PHOTOS FROM the London Premiere of Lydia Forson’s ‘A Letter From Adam’ + My Take On the Movie…

Actress/producer-Lydia Forson premiered her movie-A Letter From Adam on Friday at the Greenwich Odeon Cinema in London—and the crowd was pretty impressive. Of course, it could have been far better but considering the fact that this is her first, I wouldn’t want to use attendance to measure the success.

Despite trying so hard to beat the conventional late start by turning up for the premiere at 10pm instead of the 9:30 advertised start time, I still had to wait around till almost 11:15pm before the showing started.

Clearly, the cinema hall was booked for 11pm and as usual, I heard several people complaining about the long wait—I presume these were people who got to the venue at the advertised time.

The Story Line

‘A Letter From Adam’ may not necessary have over the top stars but the storyline which comes in layers of romance and comedy is definitely worth whatever time one may spend to watch it.

It tells a story of a young woman who falls deeply in love with a far older man—and this time, not for material gains but for ‘genuine affection’. Having had rough-good times in the past with series of strangers, this young woman battles to keep her head up for her new found love as the distractions and ‘habit’ from her past continue to creep in…

Of course everyone has something hunting him or her in life, including the old man (Adam)—but Adam is pretty steadfast despite the needless hunt. With the hovering past distractions in her life, the young woman easily falls for Adam’s hunter’s cunning presentation—perhaps, it’s better calling it a ‘misrepresentation’.

The filmmaker says ‘A Letter from Adam‘ is “a contemporary story about love, loss and hope which draws audiences into a realistic cycle of life seen through the pain of loss, the journey of self discovery and the courage and strength to find hope in the face of adversity.”

To me, it’s a good attempt at looking at one of the many shades love comes in—highlighting the fact that the love story doesn’t always end with smiles, something the film-makers themselves struggled to  accept and therefore had to push the ending for that conventional ‘a happy ending’.

A Romantic Comedy…

‘A Letter from Adam’ is a romantic comedy but I feel the romance and comedy were unconnected though they stayed within the same film. The comedy was majorly between Lydia Forson and Naa Ashorkor’s character—and occasionally, between Lydia Forson and her many in-bed associates.

There was little or no comedy between Lydia Forson’s character and Adam—where the romance primarily existed. A little bit of comedy could have been pushed into Naa Ashorkor’s character and her husband’s marriage which would have well complemented their not so obvious romance.

The comedy got people laughing and the occasional local language ‘interjection’ even made it more fun…It was a big plus!

Acting…

The strength of the movie lies in the acting; Lydia Forson was amazing and Wale Ojo was splendid. When it comes to delivery, you can’t fault Lydia Forson who placed so well with Nigeria’s Wale Ojo.

Wale Ojo comes up as an aging Denzel Washington, calm and excellent—with that perfect posture and smile for on-screen delivery.

When it comes to Lydia Forson, her acting has never been a problem—perhaps, it’s her off camera antics and politics which have made her the most under-appreciated talent in the Ghanaian movie industry.

Though Akorfa Ejeani Asiedu was out there in the movie, her role was very shaded—such that her acting prowess did not really come to play. Anyone could have stepped into the shoes she wore. For that reason, her addition did not really add anything substantial to the movie…

I think they could have made good use of her skills but then looking at the storyline, there was no much of a space for her to do her magic or anything as such.

The Production Quality

Being the first Lydia Forson’s production, once again I wouldn’t want to use the same measuring rode mostly used in evaluating the excellence or otherwise of established production houses to assess the production quality. Therefore, it’s a good start—which definitely needs a lot of improvement.

Particularly, the camera work was really not good —and sometimes, it was even shaky or unstable when it ought to have been in focus.

There were beautiful scenes of Accra which were occasionally flashed and though I loved them, I felt some did not really sit well with the before or after scenes. Some of those beautiful captures of Accra were fixed in there—without any connection to what just happened or was about to happen.

The Ending…

As much as many loved the movie, it somewhat ‘exploited’ its viewers by dragging on and on just to achieve some sort of a ‘happy ending’. At best, the movie should have ended when Adam’s letter was read. Of course that would have pushed the film into the tragic ending box—but if the movie actually wanted to break away from the traditional on-screen portray of love and relationship, then this should have been the key departure.

But then, how many African movie lovers are ready to accept romance and comedy ending in a tragic box? So it looks like the film-maker wanted to break away from a convention but she was scared and not daring enough to stick to a complete breakaway—as such, she ended it the usual way; some hope/happiness for Lydia Forson’s character and an obvious blissful marriage for Naa Ashorkor’s character, topped by a new addition to the family…

Written & Produced By Lydia Forson…

Apart from the above mention loopholes, it was a well written script—which also pays attention to some Ghanaian cultural elements while emphasising on the ‘unfeasible’ importance of marriage to most religious Ghanaians before venturing into sex the world.

The conversations were well placed—and the comic molecules dropped perfectly well. It wasn’t like the writer struggled to inject comedy when it was relevant—the biggest crime of most African movies tagged ‘romantic comedy’.

As mentioned, the writer made beautiful use of ‘Twi and Ga’—having paid attention to the fact that, certain things are extremely funny when put out in a local dialect.

‘A Letter From Adam‘ features Lydia Forson, Wale Ojo, Naa Ashokor Mensah Doku, Akorfa Edjeani, Albert Jackson, Fred Kanebi and introducing Jeff Kumordzie and Louie Lartey. It is directed by Atlanta-based Ghanaian-Sam Kessie and produced by Lydia Forson.

Check below for some photos from the premiere…