Benn Nwokike’s directorial debut, Insecure, opens with an impulsive meet-cute. Our protagonists are introduced by the fateful collapse of a blind date. It is cute but quite irrational. The foundation and intent of the scene suffice, but there are problems with the decision-making, a character inefficiency that cannot be shaken off by the viewer. But it doesn’t matter to the plot because it soldiers on. It has achieved its establishment without overarching thoughts on its consequences to the film as a whole and to the characters within that scene. This opener is a metaphor for the entire film.
Insecure stars Beverly Naya (Mabel) and Efa Iwara (Kunle) as the loving couple with testing times. After they meet on a failed date, they connect effortlessly and plan a future together. Kunle, a mediocre artist, begins to exhibit art under Mabel’s tutelage. He rises quickly, and they get married. It is a loving union that yields a child (Darasimi Nnadi). But an element arrives to disrupt the union. Amara (Venita Akpofure), a newly employed manager joins the company after Mabel becomes a housewife. In due time, Amara and Kunle begin an affair, his marriage is broken, and the consequences are afoot.
Regardless of the questionable opener, Insecure starts well. The pacing is fine, the acting is good. The narrative seems alright. In fact, its first philosophical incline appears just at the end of the first act. Mabel visits her mother (Tunbosun Aiyedehin), and they have a conversation about Kunle’s changing behaviour. Her mother tells her it is to be tolerated because marriages get boring around the tenth year, and men don’t particularly take it well. Mabel is clear this is a generational divide on how marriages work. If her husband steps out of wedlock, then it is best that he does not return. It is a dichotomy the film explores, but there is no nuance.
When we arrive in the second act, it all begins to feel pedestrian. Yes, a cheating husband, a frustrated wife, a homewrecker, a broken family: And so? Where is the what if? The narrative steadfastness with which Insecure initially presents itself demands more than it delivers. By the third act, the film has devolved into a Nollywood melodramatic mess. Characters make very questionable decisions, and we firmly expect, as is the case with a chunk of the industry films, an illogical deus ex machina to come rescue this plot.
Efa Iwara’s character, Kunle, is a two-dimensional simpleton forced to embody the film’s problematic philosophy. Whether deliberately or ignorantly, this is a pretentious, anti-man film. Of all the interesting themes the film set up—generational perspectives on what marriage should be, loyalty, and the consequences of disloyalty—the film chose misandry. Here is the problem.
This is not a nuanced, realised depiction of men and why they are unfaithful to their partners. The film consistently condemns men to weakness entirely by virtue of being men. Here, men are helpless against their uncontrollable sexual “nature” and so cannot rise above it and so must be punished indiscriminately for it. According to Insecure, the only romantic relationships women can have with adult men in marital relationships are:
- One that comes from tolerance and the recognition of men’s helplessness as regards their sexual indiscipline, as espoused by Mabel and her mother.
- A vindictive one. Where the woman cannot tolerate such irritant sexual uncontrollability as Amara depicts.
- And an uncertain, in-between one, where the woman is constantly insecure, as espoused by Mabel’s friend and confidant, played by Ade Laoye.
What this does, dangerously, is that it absolves men of blame and also leaves them vulnerable to and deserving of whatever evil women do to them. A fine case study is our mediocre, broke, low-self-esteem artist, Kunle. He is raised to success by a woman, he is led to cheat on that woman by another woman, and he is punished severely by a woman. What would have cemented his fate as a caricature trinity is if yet another woman had played the police officer’s character who came to save him. He is painfully two-dimensional.
The only justification for Kunle cheating on his wife is fleeting. After yielding to the sultry Amara’s temptations, he asks his wife if she can return to work and stop being a housewife, to which she declines and asks why he needs her to. And that’s it. Rather than fix his inane desires for his co-worker, Kunle tacitly shifts the responsibility to his wife. And when she rightfully declines, there is a false, irrational sense of justification that this is enough motive for him to cheat.
The film forgets that these are human desires, and these characters should express a sliver of what it means to be human, not a half-hacked version. Kunle embodies the weakest, worst version of married men, but where is the nuance? The film gives no cogent reason as to why this man, who has been faithful to his wife for ten years, suddenly goes downhill. Shit happens, yes, but please explain the shit. And it is not just Kunle. It is half the men in this film. There is Etim (Michael O. Ejoor), the security guard who is cluelessly manipulated into crime by Amara without any obvious incentive for him. There is also the incompetent lawyer, Jerry, played by Daniel Abua, who has been touted as brilliant until he appeared in the film.
The film proceeds into the third act with this baggage. Then, it contorts itself into an average marital Nollywood drama of old. Amara is revealed as the villain, and Kunle, bedridden in a wheelchair, unable to control his motor functions optimally, has put her on a call while she confesses. At least it embodies the irrationality it opens with.
Insecure premiered in cinemas on March 8, 2024.
Join the conversation in the comments section or on Twitter.
Sign Up: Keep track of upcoming films and TV shows on your Google calendar.
Side Musings
- The digital artist was in the film for plot convenience. He wasn’t even established as a pawn in Amara’s scheme. He just came and went so Kunle could uncharacteristically get drunk and kiss Amara.
- How many old Nollywood movies have you seen where the man turns evil towards his innocent wife and family for a new woman, and in the end, the new woman turns out to be evil? Exactly. Insecure is an old Nollywood film with fine cameras and the beautiful Beverly Naya.
