‘Dwindle’ Will Make You Laugh. Nothing More

Two friends are enmeshed in a financial dilemma. In a bid to free themselves from their situation, they are caught in between police and a kidnap drama.

Chinedu and Buta are friends and ordinary people. Their lives take a different turn when they find the kidnapped governor and large sums of money in their custody and decide to masquerade as kidnappers as well. Officers Tolani and Juliet track the kidnapper down to their doorstep but encounter a national criminal who makes their mission almost impossible.

Dwindle can be seen as a “comic crime” movie. However, the comedy tends to overshadow the crime. The movie depicts the lengths people are ready to go to meet their financial desires. It also shows that people have a lot of desires for which they do not have the money or job.

Picking the moral lessons from this movie is like trying to see the eye of a needle because the moral lessons are extremely few. In truth, movies do not have to teach moral lessons to be exquisite, but a movie needs to have a footing to be classified as good or bad. Dwindle, to a large extent, lacks that footing. Nonetheless, the comical aspect of the movie deserves some applause. Nigerian skit maker and comedian, Samuel Perry (a.k.a. Broda Shaggi) specifically handles the humor factory in the movie through his character, Buta.

Shaggi has always been a very bubbly, loud, and crazy human in his skits and other Nollywood films. He brings the energy into the movie. Watching him act would release bouts of laughter at intervals from every moviegoer or Netflix patron. Throughout the movie, Shaggi doesn’t show emotion of any sort except when he admits to stealing a car. The rest of his scenes were cruise and humor.

The level of comedy put into this movie covers its mighty flaws. Like something you’d attribute to a cartoon, or the comedy shows one sees on Nickelodeon because the flow of the movie and outcome of some of the scenes are not feasible in an actual crime movie. It’s rather feasible in a cartoon or comedy show. For example, from the movie, the kind of kidnappers that took an almighty governor of a state were really amateurs with juju and low budget John Wick. This is typical of what is attainable in a cartoon or comedy show. Cartoon or comedy is used here because both are usually very hilarious and Dwindle gave loads of comedy.

Dwindle is the kind of movie that just makes you laugh and roll and laugh some more. You should see this movie if you do not mind a structureless movie, just cruise and vibes.

Streaming Service: NETFLIX

Run time: 2 hours, 5 minutes, 34 seconds

Director: Kayode Kasum and Dare Olaitam

Cast: Funke Akindele, Bisola Aiyeola, Jidekene Achufusi, Samuel Perry, Uzor Arukwe, Timini Egbuson, Efa Iwara, Adedimeji Lateef, Jibola Dabo.