"Lara Unlimited" is Very Limited
Toni Tones' Lara spin-off trades character depth for clunky branding and loses its charm in the process.
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Before 30. The Smart Money Woman. Flawsome.
What do all these titles have in common? A storyline that centres on the breezy relationship between a girlsβ friendship unit and how they react to all the shenanigans happening to and around them.
The Smart Money Woman continues to enjoy a kind of public reception that paints it as successful, and critically, both seasons it has had so far have been good for the most part. Like many successful properties, it decided to expand its horizon, and that is how weβve found ourselves here with Lara Unlimited, a movie featuring the titular fan-favourite boss lady played by Toni Tones.
The idea of a spin-off featuring Lara was as surprising as it sounded promising when I first heard about it. Toni Tones gives that character a life that is fierce and incomparable to the other ladies that make up her friendship group, and the writing, up to this point, has always painted her in the best possible light. That is, until now.
Warning: This review will contain spoilers
Lara Unlimited is nothing like The Smart Money Woman, and it shouldnβt be. For starters, where the latter is about a group of four (or five) friends navigating life, Laraβs solo outing is mostly about the unending dramas of her workplace and alsoβI think this is even the most important thing the movie is really aboutβan avenue for Samsung to show off the capabilities of their latest S25 Ultra flagship phone. The entire movie was shot on the device, and Arese Ugwu doesnβt fail to remind us every two seconds with either an on-screen name drop or a large banner displayed for all to see. This isnβt a bad thing, except in times when the product placement is tackily done on repeat within quick, meaningless successions.
The truth is, I was bored to my bones watching this spin-off, and the signs were there from the very beginning. Scrambled camera quality and inconsistent audio were the first signs I caught on to, and by the time I got to the 8-minute mark, it became clear that the story quality, too, was lacking. To make things worse, the colour grading throughout the film often felt off, scenes looked overly saturated or poorly balanced, further pulling me out of whatever emotion the film wanted me to feel.
The longer the play went on, the more other issues, like the terrible acting performances from almost everyone on screen, which is most likely an offshoot of a directorial vision that was lacking, became even more obvious. The relationship subplot that was supposed to show us a more vulnerable side of Lara gave us an awkward pairing with a love interest (Natse Jemide) who looked far too young for her. There was no believable chemistry between them whatsoever, and their scenes together often felt forced, as though they were in two different stories, just placed side-by-side. For a film centred on a solo character, that kind of misstep leaves a glaring hole where emotional depth shouldβve been.
This is not to say that the movie is without merit. Some things that The Smart Money Woman is known for, like money management tips, life advice, etc., are still present in some form in Lara Unlimited. The parent show already had the issue of making some of these lessons feel too didactic that they detract from the story world, and Lara Unlimited doubles down on this disappointing angle. Nonetheless, there are lessons somewhere inside all that muddle for those who donβt care about delivery.
Lara Unlimited is a bold attempt to expand upon an original IP by its creator and, from a business standpoint, it is fine and applaudable. As a creative endeavour, however, it fails to hold attention and suffers from a myriad of problems that donβt help its cause. As a character in an ensemble, Lara has always been fine. As a protagonist of her own story, I say the story writer(s) failed her, giving her a less than stellar material to work with. Toni Tones is visibly struggling, and my guess is that the fact that what we got in this film is the best take from set shows just how less intentional the creative team must have been about getting things right and were probably just more concerned about having a finished material to present to their financiers. So it is hard, as a viewer, not to think of this spin-off as unnecessary, story-wise, character depth-wise, and otherwise.
Lara Unlimited is currently streaming on Azuwa Studios on YouTube.
