DAY OF REMISSION THE MOVIE-CRITIC

Every where on my facebook is this movie, *The day of remission.
Probably cause most of my friends are poly CCAPSO & SCOM drama members (I was CCAPSO drama).

The director Gilbert Moyo, a wonderful person, is a friend of mine..we were in the same class at college, and i have always admired his passion for art.Probably the reason why i watched the movie to begin with.

Its about 40minutes overall, if you pause atleast once like me when watching.

There are a couple of things that caught my eye when watching the movie and i feel i should start with those.

Firstly, the whole movie has great visuals! No lie, whatever camera was used, visual quality was not compromised. Caught me offguard also, because,most of the  Malawian movies i have watched are just too poor on the quality. Too bright or too dark for my amateur eyes most times. But the whole movie here on was just on point.

The storyline is great...The point well given *Jesus will wash your scarlet red sins away and make them white as snow*

Also, there are just some great punch lines that made me laugh and some that were plain great work of art.I will give an example,
Pastor(Giving a sinner the Jesus save me prayer): I want my name to be written in the book of life
Sinner: There is a book???
And so many others as the movie goes along.

All that aside, great musicals! No, seriously....and my favourite ofcourse is "come as you are" by Rhema. I had to see who sang that song, and it gave me pleasure that it was Joshua (Rhema). I like his music. That aside, the instrumentals in the whole movie are great.Mostly because they play the background so well and do not interrupt the movie so much as compliment to it.

I cant go without saying this, there is the Chipembere highway scene of two street fisters. WOW!
 I repeat, WOW!!

I have no words to truly describe just how proud i got after getting to that scene.It is a silent scene with just instrumentals (the ones am turnt on about).But the whole seen is artistic as it is proffessional. Proffessional being the word i would use mostly.Everything about that scene is amazingly excellently done. Probably the best scene in the whole movie.

On the other hand, i want more of these movies produced, and if they are to be produced even more, they have to improve on a couple of things.

For instance, i would really like the casting to be done professionally.  I like the work done on the pastor (Played by David Kamwendo), he looked very grown and mature for his part which is in contrast to the role of the Minister and his wife. The former just looked young. If there are no real old people to play the part, I believe what was done to Kamwendo can also be applied to the actors. Because, the moment i see a role of minister being played by a youngstar, i get the mindset that just makes me not take the whole movie seriously.

I am no movie expert, but i, just like any other person viewing the movie will judge the movie, and i was somehow dissapointed with the acting of a couple of people.  There is some amateur air in the acting even though i know CCAPSO and SCOM drama have always had superb actors and demanded splendid acting. Kamwendo and Jamilla Kadammanja (The reporter), were probably the best in that movie and i could not find anything wrong with their acting. The interview between the two at the end, makes me want the movie to go on as they convincingly play their part. I am not sure what course Kadammanja is taking, but if she is doing journalism and is thinking of joining the mainstream, i think chances that she will make it are more quite high. Her demeanor was convincing enough. The bodyguard of the minister though silent in almost the whole movie does make me notice him. He acts well though he could have concentrated on his ear thing a little less times than he did.

On the other hand, actors like the minister, his wife and the killer (the main actress of the movie), could have been greatly worked on. I have issues believing their roles. The killer gets in and out of character at a speed i cant keep up. One point she has it, the next minute she doesnt. At the beginning of the movie, for example, she starts off well, and loses it when she says "you always remember your first kill." She was given a great punchline right there that she could have nailed. But then i noticed that it had something to do with her voice projection. i do not expect a killer to have a voice like the one she projected. am not saying it should scream *am bad!*There was need of more conviction from her. Even a sultry daring voice could have accomplished the task.

The shooting scene was well planned but not exactly that well executed. It ended up taking longer than it should have in my opinion. The sad thing is, it is the crucial scene and all excellence should have been shown here. For some reason also, it was just too long like from a staged screenplay.

Which brings me to my next point, the movie was written and perfomed like a stage play.There are a lot of things that could work as a stage play in it, but just not as a movie. For example, the scene at the end was too long for a video in my opinion.

I felt the time that was given to that last scene could have been used to exploit the rape and saucide  scenes. They were too rushed up only to make a complete show of slowness at the last scene.

Other tiny details also need to be paid attention to though, just to increase excellence and show proffessionalism. For instance,in the saucide scene, how do you have a ready person, On top of a tall building mind you, to stop someone from committing saucide. Also, angles from which this scene was shot were advantageous for the shooter, but they werent exploited. In the last scene, i do recall the pastor being shot again, only this time, it doesnt show where which made me conclude on some part of his leg. Which in turn suprises me, because i see him kneeling just fine afterwards.

The person working with the effects did a great job, especially on the phone dialogue, i like the simplicity of it all, but really, the slow motion of the killers getting out of the car was not necessary. Made it look like an amateurNigerian movie. And this is definitely not the look to vie for, originality is key.

I was suprised the street kids were able to speak English. In the roles them two were given to play, i sincerely believe a chichewa screenplay was called for, and subtitles could have been used. it could even have hold more substance in my opinion. But maybe this is because the setting of the whole play was not clearly preset or given.

In conclusion, this is a great start, and there is definitely something worth viewing in the movie. In the same breath though, some major improvements need to be done in the next project.

I congratulate all the people in the production of the movie overall, Job well done! and it brings me joy that there shows to be progress into the right direction on this one.

I hope you view this criticism positively and feel the love i say it with.

I present to you, DAY OF REMISSION(Download Link)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC0FNuehcno&hd=1

Signed

Poly CCAPSO Drama Member(Never Ex)
Beatrice.