Director: Shirley Frimpong-Manso
Assistant Director: Senanu Gbedawu
Production House: Sparrow Productions
Story: Shirley Frimpong-Manso
D.O.P: Sadiq Alhassan
Soundman: Richard Tettey
Casting: Lydia Laryea & Shirley Frimpong-Manso
Production Manager: Lydia Laryea
Production Coordinator: Senanu Gbedawu
Editor: Shirley Frimpong-Manso
Music: Ivan Ayittey
Sound Mastering: Kofi Boakye Ansah
Producers: Shirley Frimpong-Manso & Ken Attoh
Executive Producer: Shirley Frimpong-Manso & Ken Attoh
CAST
Bimbo Manuel -as- Harold Davies
Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi -as- Jessica Davies
Sika Osei -as- Flora Davies
Marlon Mave -as- Jacque Julien
Kofi Middleton Mends -as- Kweku Yankah
SYNOPSIS
A government minister must choose between using his position to help his father-in-law stay out of jail for tax evasion or allow the law to take its course.
His decision sets in motion a chain of events that lures him into committing the one sin that will haunt him for the rest of his life.
INTRODUCTION
The Best Director at the 6th Africa Movie Academy Awards and the 2014 Africa Magic Viewer’s Choice Awards, Shirley Frimpong-Manso, has written and directed a new flick– GREY DAWN. It premiered at the Silverbird Cinemas this past Friday to a wide array of celebrities both inside and outside the industry with the likes of Kobi Rana (Director of Happy Death Day, Hotel Babylon etc.), Kafui Danku (Actress and Producer at ABC Pictures), Vincent McCauley (Actor), Joselyn Dumas (Actress and TV Hostess), Pascal Aka (Director of ‘Double Cross’), among many others who came around to support. I strongly believe it is a great step to building a stronger bond for the Ghanaian movie industry.
GENERAL OVERVIEW
The movie began with the minister, Harold Davies (Bimbo Manuel) resigning. As he heads to the house with the help of his driver, he shares his story with us. At this point we all understood that whatever we were about to watch on the screen will be the story from Harold Davies point of view; as such making him the central (main) character. I was taken aback when the story took a different turn. Even though we got to meet his in-law, Kweku Yankah (Kofi Middleton Mends) and his tax evasion problem, the concentration later left to his wife, Jessica Davies’ (Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi) flirtatious act with a stranger. At that point I felt Harold had awoken from his day dreaming and Jessica was now telling her story until the end were we actually saw him waking up. And that I felt gave the plot a whole different structure. The story’s point of focus was not so clear to tell whose story was being told. The potential of the story could have been discovered if Shirley had concentrated on Harold’s issue with his in-law and how he resolves it knowing very well he had the power to. The concentration would have been on the life of government officials and how they try to make the balance between their lives as officials and as a family person and this would have made it more educative than entertaining. This is why the story seemed to drag at a point. The plot was just too obvious. The story gets a 4 out of 10.
Observing the cast on the numerous billboards in town before the premiere, one will agree with me that it seemed more Nigerian than Ghanaian even though it had a Ghanaian director and producer. You end up asking yourself whether Ghanaian actors are not matching the standards of these ‘top stars’ or they are not worth branding and marketing. I believe our locally produced films are not just platforms to market some of our locally produced materials but talent also. As much as a Nigerian producer would want to use a Ghanaian actor to market a movie in Ghana, they do their very best to use 80% of their talents and 20% of ours. And you wonder why we do the opposite in our industry. But all in all, the casting for GREY DAWN was perfectly done. Each actor was at his or her best with his or her role. We might just have to applaud the casting directors.
Jessica Davies (Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi) didn’t need to speak for you to understand her. Her facial cues did all the talking. And when she opens her mouth to talk, it is a masterful level of acting. Some Ghanaian actors need to learn from this. They tend to exaggerate than act. Her performance as she mimicked the voice of her father (Kweku Yankah), husband (Harold Davies) and lover (Jacque Julien) was my best part of the movie. Did she really sweat?
Another Actress I have come to respect and admire so much is SIKA OSEI. I noticed her for the first time in Shirley’s 2013 outing ‘LOVE OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT’ and have ever since been waiting for another performance to confirm my thoughts about her and to tell you the truth, she brought her ‘A’ game on board. You wonder where she has been all these years. Her role as the 18 year old daughter of Harold and Jessica was so memorable, I was actually happy when her friend was taken off the screen; her bad acting almost tainted the good act of Flora Davies (Sika Osei).
It was my first time seeing MARLON MAVE on the screen and so I can’t say so much about him. One could notice he kept trying to push his weight to fit among these big names. The mark may have been too high for him to make a pass, but he was above average. He did his best to fit into his characterization as a cool and gentle young man trying to find meaning to life. Even though it was a bit boring watching him on the screen at times, he is soon to shine if he keeps polishing his act. There is more room for improvement.
I must say it was so refreshing to see an old face in the Ghanaian film industry on screen again. A thumbs up to Mr. Kofi Middleton Mends for such a performance. Never the less, I felt he was more concerned about his dialogue and the camera so much so that he could not refrain from looking into the camera than concentrate on his performance. Either way he was just wonderful on the screen. I hope to see more of these old faces taking roles of fathers and mothers than making up a 30 year old for such roles.
The camera work in this production was quite laudable to say. The director knew how intimate the story was that she kept to more close shots of the characters. She also at some points used more or less space to show the misunderstanding between characters or how close a character is with another.
The editing on the other hand was so seamless that I didn’t feel the cuts. One therefore had more room to concentrate more on the story and its dialogue than on the artistic nature of the shots. The editing of the scene where Jessica was met at the entrance by Harold as she prepared to visit Julien was the best for me. The gradual use of cuts to show the tension at that very moment was so beautiful to watch. What I disliked actually was the use of the jumps cuts at the Republic bar to show time lapse. It was just too jarring to watch.
The soundmen did a very good job with their work – from the production to post production stage. Their dialogues was so clear and had no ‘noise’ to distract our hearing. The scene where I happened to appreciate the sound most was at the Shaka Zulu night club. It may have been done on post but for the fact that we could hear the dialogue of Julien and Flora even as passersby got out of the noisy club was just amazing.
For the visual effect used as Julien was shot by Jessica, it didn’t look realistic at all. Not at all. It could have been done better.
In conclusion, Grey Dawn is an interesting addition to Shirley’s ever growing body of work even though it is not without its discrepancies. As to whether it is award worthy only time will tell. The board of Ghana Cinema Review gives GREY DAWN a 75% rating (thanks especially to the great performance of the cast).
