Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Best friends love same married man; language, sex.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 13+?
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A Sunday Affair
What's the Story?
In A SUNDAY AFFAIR, Uche (Nse Ikpe-Etim) and Toyin (Dakore Egbuson-Akande) have been best friends since grade school. They both live in fashionable apartments, drive nice cars, and sport wardrobes the housewives of Beverly Hills would envy. And they are both looking for love. Toyin wants a man she can have children with and Uche is on the hunt for the short-term sex adventures she craves. As the action begins, she has sex with a handsome married attendee of her sister's wedding, exchanging names only after they've had their passionate encounter and are returning to the reception. He's Sunday (Oris Erhuero), brother of the groom, and clearly a player, just the type Uche seeks out. Sunday is a transportation executive who has moved back to Nigeria from the U.S. and is staying with his brother and sister-in-law in their palatial home. Soon Sunday is courting both Uche, who enjoys the sex, and Toyin, who is looking for more. When Sunday is guilt-tripped into breaking it off with both women, Sunday, now getting a divorce, realizes he loves them both but prefers Uche. Just as he's about to commit to Uche, he learns that Toyin, who is also in love with Sunday, has cancer. The news changes everything for the characters.
Is It Any Good?
It's not easy to tell a sad story well, and A Sunday Affair is proof of just how difficult it is. Like Terms of Endearment, Steel Magnolias, and other tales of young people going too soon, this one has all the circumstantial elements -- strong friendships, complicated romances, and illness. But the deficits -- a lack of believable, likable characters and a plausible story -- are overwhelming and squash the enterprise to a mushy pulp.
The filmmakers take step after step in the wrong direction. Sunday knows he has to break off his relationships with both Toyin and Uche, but after the in-person break-up with one goes badly, he decides the experience was too painful and therefore, in cowardly fashion, he'll "have" to "ghost" the other. Sunday is charming and handsome, but he's not a great guy. So when he steps up to take care of a sick person at the end, his actions are completely unbelievable. This film wins for the largest collection of lead characters with terrible judgment. A woman fighting for her life learns she's pregnant and even though she may already have damaged the fetus with chemotherapy treatments, decides to quit the chemo that may save her life and have a baby she may not live to give birth to or take care of. At seven months pregnant, and still ill, she decides it's a good idea to travel to another country for vacation. The tagged-on ending, meant to explain everything, feels contrived and retrospectively unbelievable.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the character of a married man who has simultaneous affairs outside his marriage with two women who happen to be best friends. Does his behavior make him a sympathetic main character? Why or why not?
How does the movie illustrate good and bad judgment? How do you view the main character who knowingly has sex, during her sister's wedding, with a married man?
How does the movie illustrate the way that keeping secrets can be damaging?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : February 14, 2023
- Cast : Oris Erhuero , Dakore Akande
- Director : Walter Taylaur
- Inclusion Information : Black Movie Director(s) , Black Movie Actor(s) , Female Movie Writer(s) , Black Movie Writer(s)
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Romance
- Run time : 96 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : February 21, 2023
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