Clarissa (Sophie Okonedo) is seen on the edge the morning of her party. She’s frustrated when her maid takes the wrong plates out of the storage room, and she’s even more upset when the maid leaves a large mosaic leaning against her sofa instead of hanging it on the wall. Her teenage daughter doesn’t even want to attend the soirée, which adds to the tension, while her husband Richard (Jude Akuwudike) is busy with his political work to help the upcoming election campaign. These dramas create a series of troubles in his home in Lagos, Nigeria, where he is never far from the memories of his wonderful youth spent hours on the water with his friends. At her family’s summer home young Clarissa (India Amarteifio) spends her time studying and swimming with Ugo (played by Danny Sapani as an adult, Kehinde Cardoso in the background) and Peter (David Oyelowo/Toheeb Jimoh), later joined by Sally (Nikki Amuka-Bird/Ayo Edibiri) and Richard (Ogranya). But all that was long ago; years have seen their close-knit group fall apart.
The Virginia Woolf Seminar .‘Mrs. Dalloway’ credits twin filmmakers Arie and Chuko Esiri for the second time in its basic plot and character names, with Chuko writing the script and both in production work. The dueling timeline of Clarissa’s past and present moves forward as easily as waves lapping the shore, a sensory memory that unearths old emotions in the course of a single day. Similarly, Jonathan Bloom’s strong camera follows Peter, Richard and Sally intermittently and Clarissa’s favorite seamstress, Aisha (Modesinuola Ogundiwin) whose husband Septimus (Fortune Nwafor) is traumatized by his military experience fighting Boko Haram.
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Moving the same job .‘Dalloway’ to contemporary Nigeria provides the Esiri Brothers with a canny framework to explore Nigerian identity and culture, especially for this group of special friends whose lives are very different from most. They are educated but sheltered, mostly English-speaking with little adopted words that mark their Lagos elite upbringing, debating nationalities and philosophies over lazy lunches. The inclusion of the story of Aisha and Septimus gives a different perspective, but to those who do not know the source of the story it may seem like a confusing play.
The ensemble both in Clarissa.‘Past and Present is consistently impressive, the dual roles are particularly well cast and Okonedo and Oyelowo give their best work as the old couple wondering what could have been. Although the icy pacing of the film hampers it 125-minute runtime, this is a minor quibble about an otherwise impressive film, continuing the work that Arie and Chuko Esiri started in their first feature. Eyimofe (This Is My Desire). Singer Kelsey Lu also warrants a mention; best known for his avant pop music, his third score (follow Daughters again Mother Earth) really adds texture to the Clarissainfusing the film with a sense of dreaminess and longing. The delicate balance achieved in many fields (comedy and tragedy; past and present; love and hate) is a testament to the growing talent of the Esiri twins.
