The acting was subpar.

Director: Rukky Sanda

Starring: Rukky Sanda, Oge Okoye, Yemi Blaq and Ikay Ogbonna

Genre: Drama

Year: 2013

Duration: 105 minutes

In Her Shoes is about two village girls who dream of making something of themselves in the big world. Funke, played by Rukky Sanda, who wrote, produced and directed the movie, is the local tailor who wants to be a big time Lagos fashion designer; while Peju (Oge Okoye) is the no nonsense village champion who believes fighting with everyone and sleeping with every man will get her to her final destination – Lagos.

Nollywood’s portrayal of poor village girls often lack depth and it is no different here. The stereotypical Nollywood village girl ties wrapper, threads or weaves her hair and is either naive or uncouth. Anyone who has ever visited an average Nigerian village knows that village girls much like city girls, come with various levels of refinement.

The actresses were not outstanding in their roles. Yemi Blaq, who played Peju’s beau, was equally sub-par. They all delivered their lines much in the same way that they have done in other movies. As a Nollywood director, Oluyemi Ososanya (@oludascribe) once tweeted: “If a person can be in 30 films and there is virtually no (difference) in each performance, no matter how popular, they are not actors, they’re puppets.”

As for Sanda’s directorial skill, I can only ask: why rush to direct when one is still picking up the rudiments of acting?

In Her Shoes was a pretty safe movie, a time-filler at most. It’s story-line reminded me of the Hollywood movie, Something Borrowed, where Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) is treated like dirt by her friend, Darcy (Kate Hudson). Darcy eventually gets engaged to the man Rachel loves. While In Her Shoes does not have this twist, one can sense that it was inspired by the Something Borrowed.

More Hollywood connection: the movie shares a title with a 2005 feature that starred Cameron Diaz.

A version of this article first appeared on xplorenollywood.blogspot.com. It is used here with permission.