‘Stitches’: A Soft, Steady Love Story Where Ambition and Feelings Coexist [Review]

Stitches arrives like a breath of fresh air, or perhaps more accurately, like the careful, deliberate work of a skilled seamstress pulling thread through fabric. 

This is a romance that doesn't rush. It doesn't shout. It slowly unfolds, scene by scene, stitch by careful stitch, until you realise you've been completely pulled into its world.

Directed by Ghanaian filmmaker Shirley Frimpong-Manso in her Nollywood directorial debut and produced by BRS Studios, Stitches tells the story of Boma (Adaobi Dibor), a gifted fashion designer from humble beginnings whose life transforms when her mother's death brings an unexpected opportunity. 

Her mother's estranged twin sister, a high-society fashion mogul, offers Boma a chance at a better life in Lagos's elite circles.

What follows is a modern fairy tale that asks an age-old question: can love bridge the gap between two different worlds, or will class, ambition, and buried secrets tear everything apart? The answer, like the film itself, is more nuanced than you might expect.

A Love Story That Trusts Its Audience

At the heart of Stitches is a romance that never feels feverish or forced. Boma’s relationship with Mofe, the son of elite socialite Remi Martins (played with measured elegance by Regina Aiska) develops slowly, deliberately. 

The film resists spectacle. No unnecessary nudity. No manic declarations. Just chemistry built through glances, touch, silence, and mutual recognition. It’s refreshing. 

One of the film’s quiet achievements is how it lets intimacy exist without haste. The love story pulls you in carefully, allowing viewers to root for Boma.

It’s the kind of romance that makes you sigh, smile, and, against your better judgment, wish gently for love again. 

What makes Stitches work is that it never reduces Boma to just a romantic lead pining after a man. She has her own dreams, her own talent, her own fight. 

This isn't a story where she must choose between fashion and love; refreshingly, she gets to pursue both. The film gives her agency, ambition, and the chance to prove herself on her own terms while navigating the complications of romance.

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Fashion as Language, Not Distraction

Visually, Stitches knows exactly what it’s doing. The cinematography is lush without being indulgent, and the production design captures Lagos' high society with precision. From exclusive interiors to carefully chosen locations, the world feels expensive, but lived in.

And then there are the costumes.

The work of Yolanda Okereke elevates the film beyond romance into visual storytelling. Fashion is not decoration here; it’s narrative. Each look reflects Boma’s evolution, her vulnerability, her ambition, and ultimately, her arrival.

The sound design and music further enrich the experience, making Stitches an easy recommendation for the holiday season. It feels like the right film to introduce Christmas. 

Where the Stitches Come Loose

For all its strengths, Stitches isn't perfect. The film's ambitions occasionally exceed its execution, particularly in its storytelling structure.

Several supporting characters feel like they exist to fill space rather than serve the narrative. We meet people, get glimpses of their relationships to Boma or the central conflict, but never really understand who they are or why we should care about them. 

There are story threads that could be cut entirely without losing anything essential. These tangents feel like attempts to add complexity or depth, but they mainly add minutes to the runtime without adding meaning to the themes.

At over two hours, Stitches overstays its welcome slightly. The deliberate pacing that works so well in the first two acts starts to feel draggy in the third. 

With tighter editing and a willingness to lose some of those unnecessary subplots, this could easily be a leaner, more effective 100-minute film.

These aren't fatal flaws. The film remains engaging even when it meanders. 

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Should You Watch It?

Stitches is a gorgeous, heartfelt romance that prioritises elegance over drama, restraint over excess, and genuine emotion over manufactured conflict. It's technically accomplished, beautifully performed, and emotionally satisfying even when the story occasionally loses its way.

Yes, it could be shorter. Yes, some characters needed more development or less screen time. Yes, a few subplots feel unnecessary.

But the central love story works, and the film achieves what it sets out to do: it makes you believe in love again, even if just for two hours in a darkened cinema.

It's a mature approach to romance that trusts its audience. We don't need characters throwing themselves at each other in the third scene to believe they're attracted. 

We don't need overwrought monologues about love to understand what they're feeling. The film shows us through performance, through the careful construction of moments that feel earned rather than manufactured.

Again, it's not perfect. But it's pretty damn lovely.

Stitches is now playing in cinemas nationwide. Directed by Shirley Frimpong-Manso. Written by Shirley Frimpong-Manso, Uche Ateli, and Thecla Uzozie. Starring Adaobi Dibor, Dakore Egbuson-Akande, Regina Askia, and Obinna Okenwa. 

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