No. Just, no. You can tell there are structural and narrative issues when a film ends with a series of postscript credits revealing the fates of the fictional characters. This ambitious adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Orange Prize-winning Nigerian saga is a cluttered affair, despite requiring an hour to get properly going.
Set against the Nigerian-Biafran War (1967–1970), Half of a Yellow Sun explores postcolonial and political strife through twin sisters, flinty Olanna (Thandie Newton) and amusingly sharp Kainene (Anika Noni Rose), who return to their homeland following what we can presume was a snooty English education.
The headstrong siblings defy the expectations of their privileged Lagos family: Olanna turns her back on fine wines and glitz to live with radical intellectual lover Odenigbo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his houseboy Ugwu (John Boyega). Kainene, meanwhile, becomes a businesswoman and falls for married white writer Richard ( Games of Throne's Joseph Mawle).
Nollywood, we’re told, is a voguish hotspot in the movieverse, so any chance to watch a Nigerian film is an opportunity not to be sniffed at. Sure enough, the African locations (and John de Borman’s cinematography) allow for an epic presentation that exceeds any expectations one might have for a project budgeted at $8million.
Half of a Yellow Sun can't be faulted for its scope. But the film's attempts to concurrently explore the personal and the political make for an uneasy structure. Writer-director Biyi Bandele's switches between revolutionary polemic and melodrama are so jarring they make one think of late Jean Luc Godard. The soapy plot comes replete with love child, romantic betrayals and a meddling mother-in-law. The characters, especially Newton's shrill, hysterical Olanna, are thin and too unlikeable.
Still, the film does work well as a primer on the Biafran conflict and its ethnic divisions. And that sense that we’re only just of staying ahead of the troops provides a decent dramatic thrust.
