Yesterday was the continent-wide release of the long-awaited Akin Omotoso film, Tell Me Sweet Something. I have been keen to see it since last year, when I first heard the news about an upcoming romantic comedy set in Johannesburg. I was intrigued: I am always interested to see what our local film producers can do to revive hackneyed Hollywood tropes.
Nomzamo Mbatha and Maps Maponyane star as Moratiwa Vokwana and Nat Masilo, characters who make an unlikely match. Moratiwa is a struggling writer who feels uninspired and jaded after a disappointment in love. Nat is the “misunderstood model” who makes the effort to prove to Moratiwa that he is “not like the others”. They have a chance meeting at a night club, and their love story begins.
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| The Official Poster |
Tell Me Sweet Something uses elements of the romantic comedy – the meet-cute, the confession of feelings, the dramatic interruption, the happy ending – in a local context. It doesn’t necessarily do anything new for the genre. Notable was the fact that the process of Moratiwa and Nat falling in love felt abbreviated. There seemed to be gaps that left me feeling like the wooing aspect of Moratiwa and Nat’s relationship had been forgotten.
I felt that the build-up to Moratiwa and Nat falling in love needed to be more deliberate: the snapshot view of their romance was unsatisfying. However, it is possible that the idea behind cutting out some of the detail was to show that falling in love does not always have to be a big show: sometimes it just happens.
Throughout the film, I noticed a lot of ellipses. Dialogue in the scenes is sparse, and sometimes seemed like snippets of a conversation that I hadn’t been part of. That being said, the performances from the actors were quite good. Mbatha held her own as the leading lady: her talent really shone through. Thomas Gumede and Thishiwe Ziqubu were solid supporting actors. Gumede always brings the laughs and Ziqubu commanded attention on-screen in the role of Moratiwa’s loyal and supportive best friend.
While Maponyane’s performance was commendable, I have to say I didn’t feel like he was doing much “acting”. It felt like he was showing us the version of himself that we know and expect, given the interviews and photo shoots that he has done in the past. (Or was that his goal: to keep the image he has created for himself in the media consistent in our minds?)
The film is beautifully shot. Each scene shows the best parts of Johannesburg, and more specifically of the Maboneng Precinct, where the characters’ lives play out. There is even a scene in which Nat and Moratiwa take on the Kizomba at the popular Rooftop Salsa spot at Arts on Main, which is complete with a cameo from the organiser of the event. In many ways, Tell Me Sweet Something is a love letter to Maboneng.
Tell Me Sweet Something is worth seeing for the talents of Nomzamo Mbatha and Thishiwe Ziqubu. In addition there is the impressive score produced by Ganja Beatz.
There are few feelings that surpass the pride of seeing locally-produced content on the big screen. Tell Me Sweet Something was definitely entertaining, but it ended up falling a few notches short of spectacular.
Nkhensani Manabe 