The film, Love Promised, begins on a sweet note as a couple heads home after Sunday service. Together they radiate joy, exchanging verses of love that flow into each other like timeless poetry. It all appears fine until a fall uncovers a disheartening truth.
Benita (Princess Ada) is a fierce lady, battling a deadly disease for years. All the while trusting God for healing. She makes up her mind not to submit to medicine and chooses to run the faith way. She desperately holds on to God’s word, maybe a little more than the woman with haemorrhage. Though a victim of a trans-generational curse, Benita prefers to stand strong on her faith and desists surrendering to a false deity. Her unwavering faith baffles everyone, especially her husband, Morgan.
Morgan (Stan Nze) is also a man who believes in God but struggles within himself on how far faith can take them. He does all he can to convince his wife to take treatment, but she brushes it off. He is left frustrated when she refuses to see that treatment is an act of faith, not doubting God’s abilities. After much opposition, Morgan caves in and joins his faith with hers in prayer. Alas, he is left torn between his love for his wife and his faith in her healing.
Tragedy strikes as Morgan faces his biggest fear. However, a miraculous twist of fate promises a new life for both of them.
The movie plot is a gradual unfolding emotional drama with a strong faith premise. The narrative pull arises from Benita’s defiance to bow down to a false god and her relentless pursuit of her faith. She also dreads going to take physical treatment while expecting a divine restoration of her declining health. The storyline is filled with strong emotional turmoil, heartbreak, unwavering faith, and an unexpected miracle.
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The Nollywood drama explores the themes of love, faith, and endurance. It leans on the strength of their love and the intensity of their faith in the trying times ahead of them.
Benita’s character shows a woman battling tests of faith beyond endurance. She is an epic reflection of resilience, vulnerability, and faith. Her story arc is compelling because it weaves her defiance of an ancestral deity with her unwavering stance on God’s promises. As the film’s protagonist, her role is so relatable when it comes to waiting on miracles despite the odds.
Morgan embodies that pillar of emotional support while bearing the pain of watching his wife suffer. His character balances strength and tenderness seamlessly. As the patriarch, his performance also highlights the hidden struggles of family men who still need to put on a strong face for everyone else.
While the characters of Benita and Morgan seem to have a better build-up, the supporting characters, unfortunately, don’t. Characters like Jane (Blessing Obasi-Nze) and Doctor (Lemuel Asena), though, add to the richness of the narrative by reflecting familial expectations and pressures, do not have as strong a character arc as the leads.
Visually, Love Promised highlights the extensive growth in the use of lighting and shots in Nollywood movies. The close-up shots were crisp and effective, particularly in capturing Benita’s and Morgan’s moments of emotional chaos and vulnerability. However, some scene transitions were too fast for comfort. It robbed the movie of that smooth flow of events.
This movie poses these deep questions: how far can your faith take you? Where do you draw the line between just having faith and putting it to work? Overall, this quality production captures the raw and painful experience of waiting for a miracle. Stan and Princess breathe life into every scene with an emotional mastery that grips you with chills and gives you the sense that it’s all heartbreakingly real.
This movie also leaves me with a curious thought. Had Benita embraced treatment from the onset, wouldn’t her long struggle have eased sooner? I believe she thought it would diminish God’s power in some way or make her look like a faithless person. Could it be her strong opposition to medicine was just a camouflage for fear or pride? Think about it, how would it make her look if she changed her mind? It makes me wonder how many people have lost their lives because they didn’t move in wisdom. What do you think?
I would rate this movie an 8 out of 10 because of its depth in portraying the nuances of having faith in a broken world. I recommend this to all families and couples, a powerful experience that will entertain and bless you.
‘Love Promised’ is streaming now on YouTube on Love Story Media. Starring Stan Nze, Blessing Obasi-Nze, Princess Ada, and Lemuel Asena.
