This Nollywood movie, Sylvia, is about a young boy, Richard who meets Sylvia, a girl just as young as he is in the spirit world in his dreams every night.
They play, talk and have fun together and when it is time for him to wake up in the real world, she gives him a flower so that he can come back to her the next night.
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One time, Richard’s mother falls ill and that night in his dream, Sylvia gives him a healing potion which he wakes ups in the real world with. Despite administering the option to her, his mother dies of her sickness.
Years pass and just as Richard grows into a handsome man, Sylvia blossoms into a beautiful woman in the spirit world. Things however begin to take a different turn when Richard falls in love with a new girl, Gbemi in real life and tells Sylvia that he no longer wants to continue meeting with her in his dreams.
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Sylvia cries and begs but Richard leaves her all the same, refusing to take the flower from her thereby ending his relations with her in the spirit world.
Richard goes on to marry Gbemi but hell indeed hath no fury like a woman scorned and Sylvia starts to torment him, appearing to him by temporarily changing the faces of those around him to hers.
Richard has a friend, Obaro who at dinner one evening introduces his girlfriend, Cynthia to Richard and Gbemi. Richard is horrified to see that Cynthia is Sylvia in real life.
Richard’s life begins to turn upside down as a vengeful Sylvia is determined to ruin him. She manipulates him into killing Obaro and his pregnant wife, Gbemi accidentally. She also reveals to him that the healing potion she’d given him as a child to administer to his mother was in fact, poison to quicken her death. Sylvia then vows that if she won’t have him, no other woman will.
Years after, Richard is seen in a mental home recounting this experience to one of the attendants. He then receives a gift from Sylvia asking him to come back to her to which he responds, “Sylvia? Never again!”
I liked this movie for its simple yet powerful storyline. It doesn’t promise complicated twists that it can’t live up to. The acting of Zainab Balogun (Sylvia) is worth the applause and Chris Attoh (Richard) definitely held up his own.
The only part lacking in the movie is when Sylvia physically appears to Chris in real life. The movie gives no explanation for her transition from the spirit world into real life. How did she do it? If she could easily transition, why didn’t she all these years so that she could physically be with Richard?
Except for this one gap hole, every other scene flows pretty well.
The major casts comprise Zainab Balogun as Sylvia, Chris Attoh as Richard, Ini Dima-Okojie as Gbemi and Udoka Oyeka as Obaro.
Rating: 4 over 5
