Movie Review: The Trade

Movie title: The Trade

Director: Jade Osiberu

Running time: 1h 30m

Release year: 2023

You will agree that most Nollywood movie producers have failed to successfully create kidnap cult and robbery movies. So, you can imagine how worried I was when I realized the Nollywood movie “The Trade” was a story about kidnap attacks in Nigeria. Did this movie confirm my fears or kill them? Guess we’d find out.

The Trade centres around Eric, a perilous but mysterious kidnapper whose targets are mostly billionaires and highly respected people. Despite several attempts from the police all over the country to catch him, it seemed impossible until he kidnapped the CEO of the biggest transport company in the country.

The spice of The Trade is in how Eric does his kidnap operation and how he is eventually busted. How the storyline of The Trade was plotted is one of the high points of this movie. Despite knowing he would likely be caught at the end of the day, the writer managed to keep it real and true. One glaring thing in this movie’s writing is adequate research and deep thinking. I’m not surprised, though, Jade Osiberu has always churned out beautiful stories, and Brotherhood, among others, are testament to that.

It is one thing to have a beautiful story, and it is another thing to direct it properly, and Jade Osiberu knew exactly how she wanted her story to be told. There wasn’t any unnecessary killing we normally see in a police kidnapper scene. One of the top points here was when they needed information from someone in the US, and they recorded a video call with a white man. The production of The Trade showed effort and the quest for originality.

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The actors were excellent at delivering their roles. Haven seen Blossom Chukwujekwu play the lover boy role severally, I was a bit sceptical seeing him play the lead role here, but he blew my mind, I must confess. He was subtle yet dangerous. He interpreted the character beautifully well. Chiwetalu Agu and Charles Inojie managed to play the roles of a kidnapper and top police officer so believable, yet found a way to make a laugh while at it. As serious as The Trade was, these two make us chuckle a couple of times without losing the sauce in their roles.

There’s no doubt that Rita Dominic is a fantastic actress, and once again, she graced our screen in this movie. Waje should start acting more often because she was unarguably good. Other actors like Ali Nuhu, Gideon Okeke, Stan Nze and Shawn Faqua brought in their A Games in The Trade.

The cinematography was good, as well as the costume and make-up. Nothing exceptional, but it was good.

The Trade doesn’t have a spectacular storyline that will blow you off your feet, but the story was well told. For ratings, it gets a 9.5/10

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