It wasn’t fun watching Everything Is New Again, a new Nollywood movie about romance between an older woman and a young guy.
It stars Abayomi Alvin, Desmond Elliot, Mercy Aigbe, Nancy Isime, Olumide Oworu, Onuoha Aderonke, Shammah Agah, and Vine Olugu. It was directed by Chinaza Onuzo.
Synopsis: When Lagos interior designer Funmi (45) watches her ex-husband’s splashy influencer wedding detonate across social media, she finally unravels. Herno-nonsense best friend, Iveren, drags her to a beach escape, where a chance encounter with Ekene (28), a disarmingly sincere photographer, jolts Funmi back to life. What starts as a flirtation becomes a real connection that challenges every story she’s told herself about age, desire, and second chances. Sexy, witty, and pulsing with life, Everything Is New Again reframes the age-gap romance as a grown-woman reinvention story—where the bravest act of love may be the one that sets both hearts free.
The Magical Moments
Every time this movie tries to create a magical or romantic moment, it fails. For instance, the first time Ekene and Funmi met was at a resort. The directors tried to make the meeting feel magical, with both of them falling in love at first sight. However, we didn’t feel the spark, perhaps because we’ve seen so much of such in movies right from the 80s. Another instance was when Ekene was crying because he had to part ways with Funmi. There are other ways to make the scene emotional than by having a man cry. It was a turn-off for us.
The only time the movie came close to delivering a romantic spark was when Ekene and Funmi shared their first dance, with singer Asa’s music playing. It made sense to watch the live band’s performance and the way others on the dancefloor moved.
Ekene’s apartment
Another thing we enjoyed was the scene in Ekene’s apartment where the ‘cat was let out of the bag’ that he was in love with a cougar (older lady). The dialogue with his friends was very engaging, especially when they pointed out that Ekene was jeopardising his scholarship abroad to stay behind with an older lady.
Another interesting dialogue was when Ekene’s mother showed up unannounced and met Funmi in his apartment. Portrayed by Ngozi Nwosu, Ekene’s mother’s aura made Funmi jittery, such that we also felt uneasy for her. Despite appearing in just one scene, we name Ngozi Nwosu as the best actor in the movie, followed by the young actress who starred as Funmi’s teenage daughter, Chinaza Onuzo.
One scene seemed meaningless to us. That was Funmi’s daughter’s birthday party, where she slapped her ex-husband’s new wife. I expected that incident to scare Ekene off for a while, but it didn’t. This left us wondering what the essence of that scene was.
Everything Is New Again is not the kind of movie you would want to tell a friend about because it leaves nothing captivating to hold on to. Picture quality is nothing to write home about. It gets a shaky 5/10.
