SA rom-com raises the technical bar, despite cliches
|||MRS RIGHT GUY
DIRECTOR: Adze Ugah
CAST: Dineo Moeketsi, Lehasa Moloi, Thapelo Mokoena, Tau Maserumule, Thando Thabethe
CLASSIFICATION: 13 L
RUNNING TIME: 92 minutes
RATING: 3 stars (out of 5)
Theresa Smith
IMPOSSIBLY glossy people in inappropriate but gorgeous clothing, struggling with their love lives, teetering around on crazy heels and fending off scrubs while looking for Mr Right.
’Tis the stuff that rom-coms are made of in Hollywood, who long ago worked out the formula – meet-cute and scene setting in the first act, work up a relationship in the second act, make it fall apart in the third act and then swift denouement for a happily ever after.
With Mrs Right Guy, director Adze Ugah and his scriptwriting team have taken that formula and simply set it in Joburg with some very recognisable rom-com characters kasi-style.
Like Happiness is a Four Letter Word, Mrs Right Guy evinces a healthy sheen of technical expertise. It gives us productive, smart, black South Africans who aren’t mired in despair for our entertainment. Instead, we get some snippy one-liners and beautiful people who should be on a magazine cover.
Our girl in search of “lurve” is Gugu (Moeketsi), left in the lurch right at the beginning of the film by a cad of a husband who wined and dined her, only to get her into the sack. Totally burnt and emotionally vulnerable, Gugu becomes the ultimate ballbuster, stopping the weirdos, or really just anyone, from approaching her bestie, Anna (Thabethe), or herself, for that matter.
A sequence of various scenes in which a variety of guys make a play for her is meant to be funny, but it cuts way too close to reality to really laugh at. If you have ever spent any time in Joburg you will recognise these misogynists who talk big and think they’re so amazing – the car guard who thinks a wolf whistle is the ultimate compliment, the traffic cop angling for a bribe or a phone number, whichever comes first, and that guy in the taxi talking about yellow-boned girls.
Throughout the film there is an interesting subtext that pops up every now and then, but doesn’t go anywhere, about light-skinned black girls and whether they are better somehow for being light-skinned. This serious social issue gets lost in the question though of, is Gugu ever going to get a guy?
She meets chicken farmer Joe (Moloi), who slowly starts to wear away her defences with a real-world charm. In the meantime, at work there is new boss Dumile (Mokoena) appealing to Gugu’s work ethic, though really, he has ulterior motives and her bullsh*t meter has been totally disarmed by the lovely Joe.
The film is wall-to-wall filled with sound – every scene features yet another doef-doef beat and it all starts melting into one because there is no particular theme that follows around one person so it becomes rather numbing by track number four.
Mrs Right Guy ends rather abruptly after following every rom-com beat you expect so there’s nothing surprising here. But, there is comfort in knowing exactly where this is going and pride in the beautifully framed images and excellent sound design.
If you liked Happiness is a Four Letter Word or Safe Bet, you will like this.