Kwaw Ansah’s ‘Good Old Days’ is a 24 episode mini feature film revolving around a core family with different titles, situations and stories in each episode. While Shirley’s ‘Adams Apples’ is a miniseries made for the cinema, revolving around a core family but with one story that evolves along 10 chapters.
Shirley’s concept may not be entirely new as a similar approach was applied to the local movie, ‘Kyeiwaa’, which ran into about 12 parts. What differentiates ‘Adams Apples’ from the dreadful ‘Kyeiwaa’ is the quality of production and the division into chapters with different titles. I recently got to see the second episode of ‘Good Old Days’ entitled ‘Papa Lasisi Good Bicycle’ and the first chapter of Adams Apples, entitled ‘Family Ties’ at separate screenings at the Siverbird Cinema.
Adams Apples is set in the hustle and bustle of Accra and its suburbs with glimpses of the exciting metropolis of London. The movie follows Mrs Adams, the widowed wife of an ex-diplomat and her three daughters in their early and mid thirties. They work through domestic struggles, family life and personal battles to achieve success and happiness in a fast changing modern Ghana where love can elude the hopeless romantic; victory can scorn the hardworking; and marriage can be an illusion.
In Chapter 1, which is an introduction to the family, Jennifer (Joselyn Dumas), Baaba (Yvonne Okoro) and Kukua (Naa Ashorkor Mensah-Doku) have a surprise in store for their mother on her birthday but the surprise is almost ruined as Mrs Adams (Anima Misa Amoah) arrives home with a surprise of her own. Meanwhile Baaba struggles to forgive her estranged husband for his indiscretions whiles Kukua is faced with a ghost from her past that threatens to destroy her career and expose a secret she’s sacrificed a lot to keep buried. The fiercely independent and strong willed Jennifer drives her assistant to a diabolical plan that could spell her demise and Mrs. Adams gets an education on the rules of dating in modern Ghana. There is also the mystery of a land court case, and an unlikely stalker that drives a young teacher to seek help for legal action in the mix.
‘Adams Apples’ shows a lot of glamour that I felt some of the actors didn’t get on point. It was a little too obvious that the lifestyle being portrayed was surreal to them and that made their acting not very believable. There were some ‘fly on the wall’ moments in the acting that could have been polished up. The pace was also a bit slow but of course that’s expected if you have 10 chapters to tell a story. The closing act of the birthday scene where Uncle Bob (KSM) was bidding farewell was rather confusingly slow, as it wasn’t clear whether he wanted to say something before leaving or not. I think the whole of Chapter One covered about two or three days in the lives of the Adams.
All the same, it’s a light comedy that would get audiences laughing and wanting to see the next chapter. Think of it as Ghana’s attempt at ‘Desperate Housewives’ and don’t miss out on the grand premiere on April 21 at the National Theatre.
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