Finding Hubby 2, directed by Olufemi D. Ogunsanwo is the sequel to Finding Hubby (which was premiered in Nigerian cinema theatres on December 4, 2020, but was released on Netflix on July 9, 2021). Finding Hubby 2 produced in 2021 was released on Netflix on September 16, 2022.
In Finding Hubby 1, Oyin Clegg (Ade Laoye) and her friends Toke (Kehinde Bankole) and Gloria (Munachi Abii) in their 30s, are under pressure to get married. Oyin Clegg who’s a successful professional woman is 35 and is cast as a masculine-ish character who wants to dance to her own tune. She uses a system of elimination to select guys in her phone contacts to have sex with, no strings attached.
However, an ex Adefemi Omotosho (Efa Iwara) who she’d dealt badly with resurfaces. He’s now obviously well-to-do and he goes out of this way to woo back Oyin who falls for him. Unknown to her, his plan is to get back at her for whatever she did to him in the past by abandoning her just when she thinks it’s all settled.
Heartbroken, Ossy, Oyin’s male colleague, who wants to be more than just a friend, sponsors her to Dubai to get over her pain. At the airport (from the Nigerian end) Oyin runs into Yomi Kester-Jacobs (Paul Utomi), supposedly a super eligible bachelor from a very wealthy family. They end up travelling together and, by the time they return, Oyin is hooked. Yomi proposes and a wedding is in the works.
Then she walks in on Yomi with another man in his home while she was in another part of the house. Her mother, a lawyer (Tina Mba) advises her to go on with the marriage because, according to her, that’s what obtains in many high society marriages nowadays or words to that effect. This twist comes with barely ten minutes to the end of Finding Hubby 1. I couldn’t fathom why an important strand of the plot was left almost to the end of the film. I liked the first half of the film, but there was nothing in the body of the film to prepare us for that heavy twisted ending.
The reason I’ve taken so much time to talk about Finding Hubby 1 is to hopefully carry you along to its sequel and see whether you too can make sense of the story in the sequel. Finding Hubby 2 is supposed to resolve the conflict Oyin faces, whether to marry the very wealthy Yomi Kester-Jacobs, marry her obsessive friend, Ossy, or remain single.
Let’s not forget this is the same Oyin who was sold to us as one woman who was ready to buck any patriarchal trend. However, before the end of the first part, Oyin has become this indecisive sniveling woman who cannot decide whether she should marry a man who could cheat on her with a man right under her nose!
Anyhow, this is what Finding Hubby 2 is meant to clarify. Except that the story appears to run away from its producers: Oyin’s marriage to Yomi is going ahead but runs into a glitch at the last minute when Ossy and his pregnant wife Gloria (Muna) object citing that Yomi is gay. In case you’ve been following and wondering how Gloria is now married to Ossy, that happened in Finding Hubby 1. Wedding gets cancelled, Oyin is upset and sad.
Enter a secret admirer who turns out to be Ossy. Round and round the story go. Then someone remembers to drop domestic violence into the mix with Ossy as the wife-beater. In fact, Ossy no longer has any redeeming features. I’m almost sounding dizzy from recounting this story. Mind you, I’ve only told you Oyin’s story. You’d be more dazed were I to go into Toke and Gloria’s stories.
Maybe Finding Hubby 2 should never have been produced except if it was to correct the problems in Finding Hubby 1. I’m still wondering: How did Oyin’s character fall so low, from an independent professional woman to a damsel in distress who needs a man to rescue her? She’s not the only character who changes inexplicably. The way Yomi turned into a sneering man with his devil-may-care attitude, is shocking. This is someone who he needed to boost and protect his image. At least this is not the Yomi Kester-Jacobs we met in Finding Hubby 1.
Why does Finding Hubby 2 have to deal with so many issues? First, these issues are not introduced organically. Then they’re not given adequate time and treatment. There’s homosexuality or was that bisexuality? Then domestic violence. Then there are the soap opera bits where Oyin and Toke trick Ossy, take his clothes, and leaving him in his boxers with a threat about reporting him to his office or something. And that was supposed to make him stop beating Gloria, and erase his obsession with Oyin?
Of course, if there were fewer issues or even one big issue, perhaps there would’ve been enough time to treat them well. Unfortunately, the producers of Finding Hubby insisted on dragging in every possible issue. Perhaps, I should’ve titled this: Finding Hubby 2, beht why?
Movie: Finding Hubby 2
Streaming Network: Netflix
Release Date on Netflix: September 16, 2022
Run-time: 1 hour 33 minutes
Director: Femi D. Ogunsanwo
Cast: Ade Laoye, Kehinde Bankole, Munachi Abii, Efa Iwara, Tope Tedela, Tina Mba, Paul Utomi, Charles Etubiebi, Damilola Ogunsi
Language: English
Subtitles: English