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Review #136 of 365
Film: Wah-Wah [NR] 99 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $9.75
Where Viewed: AMC Pacific Place Theatre, Seattle, WA
[2006 Seattle International Film Festival]
When 1st Seen: 28 May 2006
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Review Dedicated to: Francie R. of Johannesburg, South Africa
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DVD |
Wah-Wah—so called because of the way the unique hoity-toity, baby-talk used by the British ex-pats who governed Swaziland sounds to the ears of the American second wife of educational minister and national treasure Harry Compton—tells the semi-autobiographical tale of director/writer Richard E. Grant of his years growing up during the transition between British colonial rule and Swazi independence. With permission of the King of Swaziland and an incredibly talented cast (three dual Academy Award® nominees) on board to create the low-budget, high dreams, lots of heart film, the very rookie Mr. Grant set out to capture the first movie ever made in Swaziland. The film begins with a look into the world of the real main character of the story, Ralph Compton. With a father, Harry (Gabriel Byrne) that brings his mother, Lauren (Miranda Richardson) to tears of boredom, poor Ralphie suddenly finds himself pretending to be asleep in the back seat of a car with his mother and an also-married and very respected male companion using the front seat in a way I didn't know was quite possible. Shortly there after, Lauren wakes Ralphie (Zachary Fox) to tell him, she is leaving to go back to England. The supposed 11-year old takes it rather badly blaming himself, his father, everyone really. Eventually, he demands that he be sent to boarding school, and his father complies. Life in Swaziland goes on as usual without him, but he returns, supposedly two years later, older, wiser, taller, and now played by the charming, effervescent, lanky lad Nicholas (last seen in The Weatherman with Nicholas Cage) Hoult, but only to find that his father has remarried just six weeks ago to an Airline Hostess from America named Ruby (Emily Watson). [Point of clarification: all the press releases state that Ralphie is 11 when sent off to boarding school. Which is fine. And the actor that plays him looks about 11. But he's away for two years, making him 13, and Nicholas Hoult looks about 17 though he probably was about 15 when the film was made. Not sure if this bothers anyone else, but it seem odd to me. Why not just have him gone for four years or six?] Truth be told, Nicholas Hoult and Emily Watson save this picture from utter ruin. For, as the older Ralph will soon find out, his father has, notwithstanding his new found love for Ruby, gotten sucked further down into the bottles of Scotch he consumes each day, and the rest of the world of Swaziland as he knew it has decayed in to moral ruins so filled with liars and deceit as to make one wonder what held it together in the first place. The story becomes a parody of a parody of a parody of itself when the leaders of the community decide to put on the musical "Camelot" as a going away farewell to the Swazis and to honor Princess Margaret's final royal visit to the former colony. Meanwhile, Ralph's mother returns to claim him and then to perhaps worm her way back into the family which has just finally started to stabilize when Ruby refuses to back down to customs and cultures in the land nor to speak the Wah-Wah and Ralph gets his father help for his alcoholism.
"The story has elements of greatness...the end result just doesn't quite live up to the build up. Ultimately, Richard E. Grant shared with us interesting parts of a not so interesting story."
Ultimately, the film plays out like an entire season of a well-written, excellently cast, television series that was then sent to editing and chopped down to a total of 90 minutes of footage. There is so much here, so much under the surface, so much above the surface, so much going on with Ralph, that we just don't get to see. That really is the crux of what went wrong with the film, it had everything right going for it except for the one most important thing, the true growth and development of the main character. Unfortunately, there are too many distracting elements for us to be able to see if Ralph really has grown and changed. We want to believe he has, but the signs are too slim. Wah-Wah is a film that you will want to love, but in the end will wonder why. There are some tremendous performances by Miranda Richardson, Emily Watson, and Julie Walters who plays Auntie Gwen also an ally of Ralph through his struggles to deal with the loss of his mother, and of course by Nicholas Hoult. The setting is interesting, though not as beautiful as one might imagine. The story has elements of greatness. Yet, when put altogether, the end result just doesn't quite live up to the build up. It's nearly as big of a let down as it is for the onscreen cast of "Camelot" when the Princess exits early on opening night claming food poisoning. Ultimately, Richard E. Grant shared with us interesting parts of a not so interesting story.
Wah-Wah [DVD] (2005)
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