television movie critique

TELEVISION MOVIE EVALUATION- SELFISH
Selfish is a modern Kenyan Drama about modern Kenyan women. It’s a drama that runs for 65 minutes and it has been produced by JITU film. Selfish has been directed by Hawa Essuman. It follows the lives of two women, Angela, an advertising executive, and Mercy, a part time model. Both fall pregnant and choose different paths: One to keep the baby, the other abortion. Are Angela and Mercy really selfish or is it the people who influence their decision?

Angela who decides to keep the baby has supportive friends and family but she is not a happy lady. We see from the movie that even after she gives birth, she feels that her baby loves everyone else apart from her. She feels that she gave up her career to be a mother but she doesn’t enjoy any bit of it.

On the other hand, Mercy is pressurized by her boyfriend to have an abortion although she wanted to keep the baby. We see that she is emotionally disturbed after her abortion. A good case is when she has gone to buy chapattis and sukuma wiki, she meets with a pregnant woman and starts feeling sorry for herself.

The story line is quite relevant especially in our Kenyan society. This is because young Kenyan girls are getting pregnant and they are normally forced to make decisions- whether to keep the baby or to have an abortion. Either way you have to deal with the consequences of your decision. However, I feel that the story has an abrupt ending. According to me, the story has no climax which is quite important in any production. Also, I feel that the script writer hasn’t created enough trouble for her characters. She hasn’t been a trouble maker for her characters.
The 4P's were brought out quite clearly. There were two protagonists in the story- Angela and Mercy. The premise is showing if modern Kenyan women are selfish when it comes to making decisions or is it the people who influence their decisions that are the selfish ones. The problem is how the two protagonists deal with the decisions that they make. The plot has been described in paragraph one, page one.

The main characters are: Angela Odundo and Mercy Ingige. The secondary characters are: Sam, Angela's mother and best friend and Mercy's boyfriend. The incidental characters are: The house maid, Mercy's father, Angela's parents in law.
The characters move the plot of the story forward as they are used to develop it.
They portray different character traits:

Angela is hardworking and determined to succeed and she even feels that by her getting a baby will just slow down her success as she will have to take a leave and she has just started off in her career. She is also honest as she tells her mother the truth about her being pregnant and the options she would like to take-key of these being abortion. Angela is also inconsiderate as she leaves for Zanzibar even without telling her husband where she has gone. She is always ever complaining despite her husband being ready to support her in every way. A good example is when Sam, her husband brings home groceries and she starts shouting and yelling at him for no apparent reason. However, Angela's best friend blames the mood swings on the pregnancy but she confronts Angela and lets her know that how she is treating her husband is not right.

Mercy is a soft spoken young girl and she allows her boy friend to make her decisions for her. She cannot stand firm for what she believes.

Sam is quite a funny character. He brings humor into the film. He cracks jokes that ease tension in the play. An example of humor is when he says that nowadays the pregnancy tests done at the hospitals can be done using someone else's urine instead of your own. He is also quite understanding and supportive of his wife when she is pregnant as he takes good care of her. Sam is also very responsible as he knows his duties as a husband.

Angela's mother and her parents in law are supportive and loving because when they discover that Angela is pregnant, they are ready to support the young family and even Sam's parents give them a house.

The dialogue used is effective as it depicts the traits of the characters. However, there should be titles when a character speaks in Kiswahili or Luo so that the audiences cannot be left behind.

The camera shots that are prominent are, Over the shoulder shots, Close ups, Medium Shots, Aerial Shot and Long shots. The transitions that were quite common are Cut, Fade Out to Black and Dissolve. However, some of the transitions were quite long- like the fade out to black. Camera movements that were used included the zoom although these zooms were not smooth and they were too fast Pan was also used to show the relationship between talent X and talent Y.
When portraying the flash backs, the director used black and white and we as the audience could easily tell that that scene was a flash back.

The montage was direct and simple and it lasted for 10seconds. However when they were introducing the characters, it reached a point when they were mixing the names of the characters and their pictures, therefore you couldn’t tell who was who. The music of the montage was relevant as it portrayed a somber atmosphere.

The lighting of the play was above average as it portrayed the mood of a particular scene. The picture quality was also good as you don’t have to strain to look at the pictures.

All in all, I enjoyed watching Selfish as it was a good production and I would recommend it to all audiences and especially young Kenyan females as many would identify with the two protagonists.

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