Review- The Herbert Macaulay Affair (2019)

  As a Historian, I'm always excited to see movies that focus on an aspect of Nigeria's history and I was looking forward to seeing what Imoh Umoren was going to do in his film based on the life of one of the founding fathers of Nigeria, Herbert Macaualay. The Herbert Macaulay Affair tells the story of Macaulay after his return from England, his work as a Surveyor in Lagos for the Whites and his opposition against Colonial rule in the 1800's.

  A lot of Nigerian’s know very little about their history and this is mostly because of the lack of books, movies and documentaries that tell our stories. Prior to the release of the first teaser for The Herbert Macaulay Affair, a lot of people thought he was a white man which further proved how important this  film was. Unfortunately, The Herbert Macaulay Affair ended up being a snooze fest filled with so many errors. When a movie's sound is bad in one or two scenes, it can be somewhat overlooked but The Herbert Macaulay Affair had so many sound issues almost throughout the film and it made the entire experience even worse than it already was. It was extremely hard to hear what the actors were saying due to the fact that the soundtrack was louder than their voices. Some of the scenes looked out of place and most of them ended abruptly and looked like they were not over before moving to the next scene. 

The acting was well below par and some scenes felt unnecessarily long. They did a good job in the costume department and the soundtrack was good but there was nothing particularly great about the cinematography. I kept on wondering where exactly the writers were going with the narrative because it seemed like they were not totally sure. There's nothing worth remembering about William Benson's portrayal of Macaulay and the other actors were average and very forgettable.

We need more stories about our history to be told and I commend Umoren for lighting a torch in the heart of Nigerians regarding our history and how little we know about it but when taking up such a challenge, it has to be meticulously done and sadly, The Herbert Macaulay Affair is one of those films you'll most likely end up wishing you never saw.

RATING 3/10

DIRECTOR Imoh Umoren

STARRING William Benson, Martha Orhiere, Saidi Balogun, Owen Nediegwu

RELEASE DATE October 25th, 2019

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