Umjolo: The Gone Girl/Learn to love yourself First!
I love South African movies and it's majorly because they appeal to my kind of person. They are very relatable when it comes to dating or sexuality. In one way or another, they help me embrace and open up about certain topics or aspects that are heavily criticized or judged in my society.If you have watched "How to Ruin Christmas", "Seriously Single" or even "Lobola Man" you would understand how relatable and fun it is to watch South African movies.
Now when I saw the ads about Umjolo: The Gone Girl, I was skeptical at first because it didn't seem like it would be that special but I proceeded to download it anyway. Now over the weekend, I had a couple of hours on my hands and I opened the Netflix app to watch this movie. Oh my God, I was pissed off at first at her bad decisions but I seriously just decided to calm down and see what she would do eventually.
Now Umjolo: The Gone Girl movie revolves around the relationship of "Lethu" and "Lucky" who had been together for quite a while. The movie starts with Lethu planning for her friend's wedding and Lucky was very instrumental in its success. Long story short, Lucky engages Lethu and she is happy to finally be getting married to the love of her life.
She noticed she had been having weird itches and discharges down there and decided to visit her doctor thinking it might just be a nasty UTI. After a series of lab tests, the doctor reveals that Lethu doesn't have a UTI but rather an STI. She is surprised and enraged as she has had only one sexual partner in three years and that has been her lovely man Lucky.
P.S Lethu has a best friend and assistant Amanda who works with her and even though she has been incompetent Lethu still keeps her because they are friends.
Lethu goes home to confront Lucky and he confesses to having cheated on her once.....or was it? Well, a worried and angry Lethu is unable to sleep and stays up all night, suddenly Luckys phone beeps and she proceeds to check his phone only to find out Lucky not only cheated once but has cheated more often than expected.
Throughout their relationship, Lucky had pretended to be a faithful partner and proven not to be like his cheating elder brother Themba only for Lethu to realize he was exactly like him but just better at covering his tracks. Now at this point, I expected her to get rid of Lucky for good but baby girl is in love. Finding all those cheating messages on his phone makes Lethu throw him out of the house in the middle of the night and she falls into depression.
She decides to take a break from work and everything and travels to see and grandmother. Asking her grandmother for advice and her grandmother gives even worse advice. Her grandmother kept pointing out that all men were irredeemable cheaters and that she should go back to Lucky since he was sorry and loved her. She takes this advice to heart and proceeds to forgive Lucky but on the condition that they open the relationship and are allowed to have sexual relations with other people.
Lucky doesn't like the idea at first but proceeds to agree because he can't seem to control his third leg🤦♀. Things go astray when Lucky starts to get jealous and can't seem to handle the trash he gives to Lethu. Well, long story short Lethu walks in on her beloved Lucky having sex with her assistant Amanda at the wedding party she planned.
I loved this movie because eventually, Lethu had to learn the hard way to choose herself first. She kept putting Luckys needs above hers and he didn't respect and love her enough to do the same or even be faithful. In her quest and desperation to settle down and show a ring at her high school reunion party, she was staying in a relationship that was running not just her mental health but her reproductive health as well. Her grandmother who was supposed to teach her how to love and respect her body made things even worse by normalizing an issue as bad cheating.
This movie highlighted the importance of having good role models because if her grandmother wasn't as stereotypic as she was, she would have advised Lethu to stay away from Lucky. But instead, she exposed her to even more disrespect and STIs. Putting myself in Lethu's shoes I would have cut all ties the moment I found out Lucky was cheating, especially after contracting an STI as bad as chlamydia! What if it was HIV? Hell No! I might love Lucky but I love myself more and would want to protect my body and well-being.
Thank you for reading🤞