Lobola Man 2024 Movie Review
All over the world, marriage is linked to rituals and traditions. In South Africa, negotiations must be held over the dowry: the lobola. In the romantic comedy Lobola Man, this fact is used to squeeze a childish comedy.
Ace earns his money as a ‘lobola man’. He helps the groom’s families to get the price for the bride-to-be down a bit. He is such a good negotiator that he can even sell a couple of (white) Afrikaners as Ubuntu supporters. He himself takes advantage of the spicy situations to get a few things up. The ladies man has to run for his life.
With this fact, even the most unsuspecting viewer knows after about ten minutes what is going to happen: the lobola man is going to fall for a bride. And so it happened. Computer programmer Duke hires Ace one day, and gets the lid on his nose. He should have known better, as the programmer of his ‘mate date app’, an app that Ace brags about. “You wouldn’t believe how much ass I got through your app.”
Unfortunately, little happens with that IT fact. Director Moleya plays it safe. This is The Wedding Planner or worse, a kind of Bon Bini South African Parties . The latter association is mainly caused by the ‘fake family’ that Ace hires to do the job. A bunch of smarmy idiots who do a childish village farce. Admittedly: the jokes about a supposedly deaf-mute uncle are among the best in the film – but that also says something about the level.
When most of the jokes have dried up, and other things (such as alcohol) start to flow freely, the acting of the main characters becomes more serious and also better. You could also call that painful in a romantic comedy, which mainly tries to score with jokes and gags.
Comedian Theo Maassen (now canceled due to loose hands) once said: “love, they should make a song about that.” Lobola Man seems to think something similar about cinema. Despite this, the film does not have much that is exciting about love to report. The male-female image that the film presents can even be called somewhat nasty.
Computer programmer Duke is a small, insecure and badly groomed man who loves to cuddle. Especially the latter seems to be an absolute minus for those around him. He would rather be with a nerdy colleague. Leave beautiful women to real men. In other words: Zandile, the bride-to-be, quickly becomes a piece of cake for Ace’s firm, masculine hand.
Some of the best scenes take place in the run-up to the lobola negotiations. Zandile’s father Mr. Zungu indulges in a verbal wrestling match with Ace, who tries to save what can be saved. At that moment, the solution to send everyone home happy becomes obvious. With three quarters of an hour to go, that is, to say the least, well in time.
Lobola Manis about the winner in life. Those who are quick-witted and dare to ride on the edge. A truly abrasive comedy would have spent more time on the shy stragglers: Duke and his colleague Rachel. Now the independent and sometimes quite feminist-minded Zandile is tamed again, as is fitting in a patriarchal world.
