The latest release on Netflix is Nigeria’s A Sunday Affair. Directed by Walter Taylaur, this Netflix Original is dry, colorless, and a bit of a yawn. It’s a love triangle between lifelong friends Uche and Toyin. They both fall for the same man, Sunday. Yes, his name is Sunday. He is astonished and confused at the fact that two women have fallen in love with him, and he doesn’t know who he is going to choose.
Shot in the beautiful city of Lagos, the story is quite lifeless. Uche and Toyin are still best friends, and they are attending Uche’s sister’s wedding, where Uche hooks up with a married man. When Toyin asks her to be careful and not give away so easily to her temptations, she replies, “Married men are her type.” That’s your first cue to prepare yourself for the major disappointments ahead.
Toyin meets the man Uche hooked up with while she is traveling. No point in guessing who this man is. Sunday sits next to her on the train and clarifies her confusion. He says he is getting a divorce, and he is single again. Toyin and Sunday start dating. Sunday has to meet Uche again since he is her brother-in-law’s brother.
Uche runs an art gallery that is funded by a rich man named Sam, who gives her money in exchange for sex. On the other hand, Toyin is trying to get pregnant. Sunday doesn’t break up with either of them yet. Even though Sunday wants to break it off with both women at one point, his intentions aren’t black or white. He is always seen playing along the gray moral lines.
When both of them fall for Sunday, as a viewer, you expect some shocking twists and turns. You expect their friendship to be destroyed. You expect a fun ride where you want to see how these characters emerge into stronger people and learn the act of letting go. To the viewer’s disappointment, none of these things happen.
All that curiosity and expectations go in vain. Neither of the women fights with the other. They don’t even confront each other regarding Sunday. A love triangle is supposed to be messy and emotional, but A Sunday Affair is neither of those things. The movie tries to show infidelity as conventional and normal. It asks the question, “Can a person be in love with two people at the same time?”
But it’s not love. It is perfidy when a person is in a monogamous relationship with a woman and also fools around with his girlfriend’s best friend. Sunday is just another philanderer, and both the women fail to label him as such. It’s not just the women. It’s the poorly written script trying to justify a womanizer’s actions in the name of “love.”
Just when you think the movie couldn’t get worse than this, it surprises you and throws the worst thing at your face. The movie bribes you into getting all emotional because Toyin has just received some heartbreaking information. She reaches out to her best friend and wants to spend the night partying to forget all her troubles. They go to a club. Toyin gets drunk and asks Uche to leave her alone.
Right before Sunday goes around looking for Toyin, he confesses to his friend that he is in love with Uche and wants to spend the rest of his life with her. He finds her at the beach. She reveals that she has been diagnosed with Stage 3 cervical cancer. Sunday shares that his mother lost the fight to cancer when he was ten years old. He takes her home and motivates her.
He promises to be by her side no matter what. Toyin begins chemotherapy, and both Sunday and Uche let their problems rest for a while. In the end, Toyin loses her life. She leaves a letter where she writes that she knew about their affair and just wanted to spend the last few months with Sunday.
It’s a weird film, and you won’t know whom to root for and whom to feel sorry for. Everyone is selfish, and they all turn a blind eye to infidelity and how their actions will hurt all the people involved in this love triangle. No interesting characters, and as the story unravels, it becomes more laughable and preposterous.
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