I was a bit pumped to see Temitope Akinbode’s On The Edge. The trailer gave off a sense of intrigue, but mostly because Uzor Arukwe, one of my favourite Nollywood actors, was cast as one of the central characters, Korede Williams, an aspiring governorship candidate. Having seen him deliver good performances in films like A Tribe Called Judah, The Blood Covenant, and The One For Sarah, I anticipated another performance of the same standard. Thirty minutes into the 2-hour film, I already felt a sense of disappointment—Uzor Arukwe was rendering one of his inadequate performances, and the substance promised in the trailer was lost in the confusion of narratives.

Korede Williams and his wife, Lola (Zainab Balogun), keep up appearances in front of the cameras for the sake of his governorship ambition, but we soon see that there is no love lost between them. They have been estranged since Lola’s affair with Korede’s party chairman, Hon. George (Patrick Doyle). Korede soon rediscovers some form of romance with Mira (Oluchi Amajuoyi). Mira is also Tominsin’s (Olumide Oworu) high school sweetheart and long-term partner, creating a web of entanglement that leads to several complications. Mira is faced with a decision between her high school sweetheart and an illicit affair. Despite her choice to be with her sweetheart, Korede refuses to accept it and resorts to drastic actions, ultimately resulting in dire consequences.

On the Edge takes on several forms during its 2-hour run; it slowly progresses from a romantic drama to a revenge thriller. But the most conspicuous element of all is the different levels of class struggle depicted throughout the film that motivate the characters. Korede, despite being a governorship candidate, has to suffer the ignominy of seeing his wife have an affair with a close superior to protect his ambition; simultaneously, he exerts his power (financial and physical) over Mira to keep her in a relationship with him. Lola and Mira, despite being of different societal classes, find themselves in similar situations: Lola has an affair to put Korede in a position of favour with his party chairman, and Mira does the same with Korede with similar intentions for Tominsin, who is an unemployed graduate trying to survive. While Mira is able to conceal her secret, Lola isn’t, and she is scorned for it. In the intertwined dynamics, we are also presented with the futility of the struggle for justice by the lower class when the elite commit crimes against them. This depiction of class disparity is probably the only element of the film that is properly explored. 

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Although most of the ideas in the film are not unfounded, the major problem of the plot is the plausibility of the relationships that incite the major conflict—the relationship between Korede and Mira. The question that boggles the mind is, how did they meet? Korede is a leading candidate in the Lagos governorship election, definitely of the elite class, while Mira is a lowly character who is lucky to find a job on the Island. Even more pertinent, how did he fall in love with her? There is no exposition to throw light on these questions, as we just find them to be in a relationship, which leads to contrived drama. The way the relationship is presented, Mira looks more like a preferred sex worker than a love interest. As a result, the steps Korede takes to keep her in the relationship are farfetched when he could have easily arranged another option.

On The Edge suffers from an all-around low-level performance from its cast. Our lead, Uzor Arukwe, gives an unusually uninspiring performance, and several of the secondary players deliver their performances with aloofness. Coupled with an atrociously slow pace, we are forced to sit through two hours of blandness as the film is unable to deliver its punches, doing nothing to put us on the edge of stakes that obsession and illicit romances can trigger.

On The Edge premiered on Prime Video on February 15.

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Side Musings

• Was the rape scene really necessary? If Abe would go to the extent of fighting his gang leader to prevent the sexual harassment of a minor, why depict such sexual violence on Mira? Also, why wasn’t it enough motivation for revenge? 
• If simple arithmetic calculations make Abe a math genius, then I am one too.
• You hardly watch a Nollywood film without asking “why?” a dozen times. To be left with no answers.
• Why is there no premise for the poisoning of the party chairman? It just happens out of the blue.
• The film shows the disparities between the different levels of class in society and how oppression is a constant in human life, regardless of status.