Brown Sugar (2025) Review: A Cougar, a Gold Digger, and the Nollywood Power Shift That Shocked Everyone

Tina Mba’s Late-Life Sexual Awakening in Brown Sugar Exposes the Hypocrisy of Nigerian Workplace Romance

Introduction: The CEO and the Age-Gap Affair

Nigerian cinema loves a moralistic drama, and on the surface, Brown Sugar (2025), clocking in at a weighty two hours and twenty minutes, promises the familiar spectacle of a powerful woman’s spectacular fall. But veteran actress Tina Mba’s commanding portrayal of Margaret Thompson, a 60-year-old corporate titan, coupled with a genuinely intriguing performance from Eronini Osinachi as the young intern, Toby, elevates this film beyond simple melodrama. It becomes a sharp, if sometimes clumsy, interrogation of age, gender, and the pervasive power dynamics that govern who gets to enjoy a guilt-free sexual life in modern Lagos.

The film’s core premise—Margaret, the successful CEO, finds herself in an intense, passionate relationship with Toby, the 29-year-old intern—is designed to provoke. While the setup flirts dangerously with the ‘sugar mommy’ trope, the film’s strength lies in forcing the audience to ask: Why is this relationship framed as a crisis, while an older man dating a younger woman is merely a Tuesday? This review delves into the film’s narrative choices, technical execution, and ultimately, its success in delivering a bold message amidst the noise of its supporting cast.

Thematic Evaluation: Power, Pleasure, and the Price of Female Desire

The Double Standard of Desire

The film immediately establishes Margaret not just as a wealthy woman, but as a person who has emotionally flatlined. In a remarkably frank scene (starting around [00:37:38]), Margaret confesses to her friend, Ron, that she has never experienced an orgasm, not even with her late husband. This revelation is the thematic engine of the film. Her subsequent obsession with Toby is not just a fling; it is a desperate search for pleasure and validation denied to her by a lifetime spent prioritizing power and repression.

The film succeeds most in exposing the societal double standard through the immediate and violent judgment Margaret faces. While a male CEO’s workplace conquest would be met with a wink, Margaret’s affair is a “disgusting” act that “brings shame upon this family” [01:41:44]. The narrative’s true victory is its refusal to let Margaret wallow in this shame. She dismisses the judgmental voices, asserting: “I am human too” [01:41:50]. This framing—of a woman claiming her right to pleasure regardless of age—is a significant, if often overshadowed, stride for Nollywood.

The ‘Gold Digger’ Trope and Power Imbalance

The most contestable element of the plot is, predictably, the ‘gold digger’ trope applied to Toby. The film brilliantly sets up this ambiguity: Toby’s entry into the company is strategic, and he has a multi-million Naira software idea he desperately needs funded. The accusation by her daughter, Nadine, that he is a “bloody scammer” [01:57:49] attempting to secure ₦50 million for his “useless software” [01:56:14] lands with weight.

However, the film attempts to inoculate Toby against this charge. We see him decline a salary raise and later quit his job [02:02:18] to build his own capital, asserting that if they are to be together, he needs to “make something of myself.” While this moment attempts to definitively prove his sincerity, it feels slightly too neat—a dramatic escape hatch designed to clear him of the narrative’s central moral threat. The inherent power imbalance of the boss-subordinate relationship, a real-world concern, is largely ignored in favor of a romanticized resolution.

Character and Performance Breakdown

Tina Mba as Margaret Thompson: The RUTHLESS but Repressed CEO

Tina Mba’s performance is the magnetic centrepiece of the film. She embodies the cold, controlled executive, her face a mask of weary competence (see her scene with the incompetent team at [01:17:23]). Her gradual thawing is believable, communicated through small, telling gestures: the guarded smile when Toby shows genuine interest in her forgotten interview [00:21:50], the sudden, panicked shame after their first kiss [00:55:52], and her final, resolute decision to prioritize her happiness [02:15:15].

Her portrayal is nuanced: she is never likable in the traditional sense, remaining demanding and harsh (e.g., firing Pablo’s relative [02:03:59]), but she becomes profoundly relatable as a woman desperate to experience life before it’s too late.

Eronini Osinachi as Toby: The Ambiguous Heartthrob

Osinachi has the difficult task of playing both the ambitious corporate shark and the sincere lover. He succeeds by maintaining a constant, earnest gaze. His key dialogue (e.g., “I have loved you from the moment I saw you” [01:24:37]) is delivered without melodrama, which makes the audience, like Margaret, question the gold digger claims. He effectively serves as the catalyst, but his character lacks the emotional depth and internal conflict Margaret carries, making him more of a romantic ideal than a fully realized person.

The Supporting Chorus of Judgment: Pablo and James

The supporting cast functions mainly as a “Greek Chorus” of societal judgment, with Pablo, Margaret’s cousin (played by the talented but here, restrained, Ayo Mogaji), taking the lead. Pablo is a magnificent caricature of the entitled, lazy, and patriarchal family member [01:46:51]. His over-the-top pronouncements, heavy with Pidgin and cultural resentment, provide much-needed comedic relief but also a constant, toxic backdrop of what Margaret is defying. He embodies the patriarchal family structure that believes it owns Margaret’s wealth, her decisions, and her body.

Technical & Cinematographic Analysis

The production design effectively captures the high-end corporate and residential environments of Lagos. Margaret’s office and home are sleek, sterile, and indicative of her tightly controlled life. The lighting and cinematography maintain a polished look befitting a New Nollywood production, successfully contrasting the CEO’s cold, professional life with the warmth and privacy of her personal space.

However, the pacing is a notable issue. The runtime (over 140 minutes) is bloated by lengthy, repetitive scenes, particularly the endless tirades from Pablo and the numerous, drawn-out arguments between Margaret and her staff. A more ruthless edit would have sharpened the film’s focus and amplified the central emotional tension, which often gets buried beneath extraneous melodrama.

The director’s handling of intimacy is mature. The scene where Margaret and Toby discuss their relationship after the secret gets out is handled with quiet intensity [02:01:40], relying on Mba’s expressive face rather than gratuitous sexuality.

Final Judgment: A Flawed but Fearless Statement

Brown Sugar (2025) is a film of contradictions. It is technically polished but narratively overlong; it tries to be a profound statement on female autonomy but is cluttered by distracting comic-book antagonists.

Ultimately, the film succeeds because of its bold thesis: female desire, regardless of age, is valid, and the societal shame applied to it is rooted in hypocrisy and patriarchal fear. The film’s final message, articulated through Nadine’s surprising moment of clarity and acceptance [02:12:42], is that Margaret has earned the right to choose her own happiness, regardless of age or public opinion. While the ending is perhaps a bit too neat—the gold digger accusation conveniently debunked and all family members suddenly reconciled—the journey there is messy, provocative, and deeply engaging.

It may not be a perfect film, but it is a necessary conversation starter that challenges Nollywood and its audience to scrutinize their own biases regarding age-gap relationships and female sexual agency.

Rating: ……………………. (3/5 Stars)

Call to Watch:

If you are looking for a sharp, uncompromising performance from a veteran actress and a drama that forces you to confront your own views on age and sexuality, Brown Sugar is mandatory viewing. Stream it now and let us know: Was Toby sincere, or did he just get lucky?