Umjolo: The Gone Girl Review: A Predictable Rom-Com With a Regular Plot

The first of the South African rom-com anthology, Netflix’s Umjolo: The Gone Girl brings a steamy, emotional journey to self-love. The plot revolves around Lethu, a young woman who navigates through the complexities of an open relationship as she rediscovers herself. The film follows a simple plot holding a message of discovering your self-worth and is a typical rom-com that entertains you for a while.

-No Spoilers-

Umjolo: The Gone Girl Review

The film begins with the perfect, happy life of a young woman Lethu, who has it all. A growing career, and a loyal boyfriend, which only intensifies when her boyfriend proposes to her. However, with her engagement comes the shock of her fiance’s infidelity and the road to an open relationship.

The film brings about her story in a way that is typical of this troupe but still holds the excitement and some relatable elements that cannot be ignored. Keeping it simple, the flow of the film was smooth and did not bring any heightened fantasies of true love changing men. It was kept realistic and focused on the growth of Lethu instead of making the plot some kind of a fantasy. The characters are surely the highlight because of how real, relatable, and comic they are.

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Moving on, the steamy scenes and the chemistry between the characters in these scenes showed the relationship that they held. While scenes between Lethu and her boyfriend Lucky hold a kind of emotional intimacy, those he shares with his flings clearly lack the same. This feeling is quite clear, but that doesn’t change the infidelity that he carries throughout the film.

Speaking of the plot, this is a simple rom-com that is good for a chill session where the focus isn’t really on watching the film. It is entertaining but isn’t something that will catch your eye because of how predictable the story really is. There is hardly any excitement in the plot and it proceeds smoothly in ways we expect it to. Even Lucky’s reaction to Lethu explaining their open relationship is obvious!

The bottom line of the story is that men don’t change so move on girl! And if this isn’t already clear, the narrator who keeps popping up throughout the film will remind us of this in his own entertaining ways. This whole film just makes you look at the negativities of a relationship and will downgrade men in ways that make them all look like red flags. This can be related to the fact that Lethu is the central character and everyone else needs to be the villain for her to shine.

Coming to the cinematography, it’s smooth and colourful with elements of their culture which brighten up the look of the film. I love how smoothly they mix modernity with ethnic elements, which is simply beautiful.

Altogether, this film is a rom-com and it keeps itself stuck to the genre without much innovative ideas incorporated in it. The plot is too straightforward, without many surprises. The character growth is somewhat obvious while the sex content is a party for Lucky. There is certain nudity so here’s a warning to ensure you don’t play it where you can get into trouble.

Summing Up

Overall, the plot is not something too intense or exciting, it is however interesting and a fun one-time watch. The story is predictable, and the characters are comic, but this is a film that you can easily skip. Give it a shot if you just want something playing in the background because you won’t be missing out on much even if you don’t watch the film.

Watch Umjolo The Gone Girl on Netflix.

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