A singular absence of brotherly love in this striking and surprisingly sunny slice of South London life.
Saturday in Peckham, South London, Yemi’s mother is eagerly awaiting the arrival from Nigeria of her elder son Ikudayisi. Yemi himself, on the other hand, resents having to stay at home to meet this fraternal interloper, whom he has not seen since he was a small boy. He would prefer to be out playing football in the park, under the apparently admiring gaze of the beautiful, high-maintenance Armani. She has recently split up with Razer, the local estate’s top dog, and her true motive for flirting with Yemi is to make her former beau jealous. In this she succeeds only too well, and Yemi, already burdened with escorting a brother who seems intent on embarrassing him, now finds himself the target of Razer’s anger…
A vibrant and good-hearted comedy of manners…
In a delightfully refreshing change to the grim-faced miserabilism usually associated with cinematic portraits of London’s black community, with their emphasis on deprivation, drugs and firearms, GONE TOO FAR! is a vibrant and good-hearted comedy of manners which manages both to be straightforwardly – even crassly – funny and to make subtly complex observations about race relations (in the true sense of that overused term). Though it deliberately references Spike Lee’s DO THE RIGHT THING (down to using a local DJ to act as an occasional narrator), GONE TOO FAR! has nothing of Lee’s scalding rage. Even so, the largely comedic set-up does not stop the characters from being brutally rude to each other: Armani (Shanika Warren-Markland), who is mixed-race, never hesitates to insult the ‘Affs’, as she calls black Africans, for what she sees as their various shortcomings. And when the daughter of the local Asian shopkeeper accuses Yemi (Malachi Kirby) and his Nigerian compatriots of being a nation of thieves, he gives her a none-too-subtle reminder of ‘her’ people’s fondness for blowing things up. Still, as Paris (Adelayo Adedayo), Armani’s increasingly exasperated companion, points out, however bad it gets, it will all be forgotten tomorrow.
The two brothers essentially spend most of the film wandering around Peckham trying to buy some okra…
GONE TOO FAR! is directed with skill and verve by Destiny Ekaragha, who makes the most of what this much-maligned portion of south-east London has to offer, even managing to shoe-horn in a scene set in Peckham’s prize-winning library building. The screenwriter Bola Agbaje has ably opened out her own award-winning play, though there have inevitably been some losses in the translation from stage to screen. The character of Armani no doubt makes for a richly satirical portrait in the theatre, while here she comes across as little more than hateful. Yemi’s relentlessly petulant attitude towards his brother seems repetitive, and would have been a good deal more wearing without Malachi Kirby’s awkwardly charming physical presence. The plot remains slender to the point of emaciation – the two brothers essentially spend most of the film wandering around Peckham trying to buy some okra.
Yemi and Ikudayisi’s mother, muttering imprecations in Yoruba, makes sure she always has the last word…
What the film lacks in plot, however, it more than makes up for in the saltiness and focus of its dialogue as well as the often surprising depth and complexity of the characterisations, both of which give the actors many opportunities to shine. The Nigerian actor O. C. Ukeje, as Ikudayisi, brings light and shade to GONE TOO FAR!’s sunniest character. Golda John is on commanding form as Yemi and Ikudayisi’s mother, muttering imprecations in Yoruba and making sure she always has the last word. Miles McDonald plays Razer’s all-too-faithful sidekick Ghost with a winningly hangdog stoicism, and while Tosin Cole as Razer himself does little to suggest the menace of this scourge of the estate (which would perhaps have been out of place within this mostly feel-good comedy), he offers instead an unexpectedly endearing portrait of a dunderhead: there is a particularly memorable moment in the film when, having just forced an old lady off the pavement while riding a bike several sizes too small for him, he comes back and apologises for his behaviour, giving her a kiss.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEbIkZJgNGg