Wah-Wah

source: Wah-Wah

I grew up in Swaziland five years after the period in which this film was set. Although I was a white boy growing up in Africa, and went to the same school as Richard E Grant, my experience was nothing at all like this film. Clearly, independence from Great Britain had a hugely positive impact on the country. The only affecting scenes are those showing the beautiful landscape and the climactic independence celebrations. And I got a small thrill out of recognising locations from my youth: the (presumably recreated) Cinelux cinema and the hot pool (commonly known as the cuddle puddle). All the characters in this film are loathsome. Are we really supposed to care about these pith-helmeted dinosaurs of the colonial period? Luvvies prancing around under the African sun? This is how Richard E Grant decides to pay tribute to the country he supposedly loves? This really is, as one of the characters remarks, all too hoity-toity and a load of old Wah- Wah.

Friday May 26, 4:30pm The Egyptian Sunday May 28, 6:30pm Pacific Place Set in 1969 as Swaziland is about to gain independence from Britain, Wah-Wah is the childhood memoir of actor, writer and director Richard E. Grant (Withnail & I, Gosford Park). Twelve-year-old Ralphie is the son of Harry (Gabriel Byrne) and Lauren Compton (Miranda Richardson), members of a boozing and adulterous colonial society. When their marriage fails and Lauren leaves, Harry succumbs to alcoholism and sends his son to boarding school. When he returns two years later, Ralph (Nicholas Hoult) discovers his Dad has married Ruby (Emily Watson) an American ex-airline hostess who has taken to the snooty locals like oil to water. Grant's recounting of this shallow, racist culture is handled with sensitivity and the insight of someone who lived through it. Excellent casting, moving performances and gorgeous cinematography do little however to relieve the impression of too much material compressed into the running time of this complex social drama.

Went to see this film on a free promotion, knowing nothing about it beyond vague awareness of the publicity blurb. What a dreary experience! It's an inauspicious start when even the filming behind the opening titles seems clichéd and clumsy. Then the characters inspire no interest, the writing and direction are Mills & Boon, the story-line rambles on with no sense of shape or structure. It was like an extended omnibus edition of a minor soap opera, without the excitement. Some normally reliable acting talent present, but mainly wasted. I'm astonished so many people who've commented already have enjoyed it! But then I hated Memoirs of a Geisha too. What else can I say? It certainly wasn't a comedy as billed. I suspect the distributor thought that was the only way to sell it, but perhaps even the film-makers couldn't decide. My wife, who usually likes this sort of thing, found it completely uninvolving too.

Richard E Grant cashes in some favours and assembles a top-notch cast of luvvies. Julie Walters, Emily Watson, Celia Imrie and Miranda Richardson were all very strong in their roles (although Miranda occasionally reminded me too much of the stressed mum she played in an episode of AbFab). Unfortunately the male cast members were nowhere near as good (I was SO glad when the younger Ralphie was sent packing). I also found the family drama element to be poorly written, especially at the beginning, which was almost unwatchable. At points the script and camera were amateurish and unoriginal. There was far too much use of cloying music as a counterpoint to the tiresome proceedings (Dad slams door, boy flinches and strings swell, etc). Most of the time you have no clue why these people are in the relationships they are in, especially Ruby and the girl Ralphie has a crush on. Perhaps it was a reflection on colonial perceptions at the time, but aside from the singing gardener and the local doctor all the Africans do nothing but smile or run around with spears. The colonial bickering and the preparations for the royal visit were far more entertaining. If only this had been an ensemble piece looking at the lives of the colonials in the dying days of the Empire, with none of the dreary family squabbles!

With a cast like this, I wondered how Richard E. Grant could possibly go wrong. But dare I say that in directing his own life story he has been unable to transform his reality into a story that has some appeal for anyone other than himself. This is self-aggrandising film-making at its worst. How are we supposed to care about a bunch of childish, adulterous, slave-driving colonials? I ended up feeling much more sympathy for Regina, the family's African maid, and she doesn't even have any lines! It's hopelessly melodramatic. So much door-slamming and so many jarring outbursts. Whenever Grant seems to want to inject some high drama, he simply arranges for one of the key relationships in the film to dissolve - and it seems to happen every three or four minutes: break-up after break-up. Nothing is understated at all. Yes, Richard, these things may have REALLY happened, but you haven't been able to make them convincing or meaningful on the big screen. You can't even make us care for the characters played by such wonderful actresses. How does a character played by the sublime Miranda Richardson manage to come off as completely one-dimensional and unsympathetic? Emily Watson is probably the best working actress in the world but she's so far above this material that her presence only serves to remind viewers that this could have been a good film. And were we supposed to care when Ralph's father dies? What did he ever do for anyone? To me he only seemed to be the bane of Ralph's existence. I guess a large part of the problem lies in the fact that the characters seem not to have any psychology, other than the most surface motivations. Ralph, being the main character, is particularly empty, despite Nicholas Hoult's best efforts. Yes he has a facial tic when he's tense, but what's driving him? Is it that he wants to be a Droog? I don't think so. The troubles that hampered the production of this film are written all over the screen. Patrick Doyle has written a beautiful score, but it doesn't seem to have been written for this movie. And far too often the editor relies on fades to black to generate emotional tension - and it doesn't work. The camera work is equally ambiguous. What does that last shot leave us with other than a sense of how pretty the countryside is? What really brings the film down, however, is the fact that Richard E. Grant doesn't seem to know what he wants to say with this film. Why did he want to make the film, other than as a tribute to himself? Yes, it's a coming-of-age story. Yes, it's about the English in Swaziland. But what does it all ultimately mean? To me, I'm afraid, Ruby's description of English toff-talk as 'wah-wah' seems to be a fitting description of the film as a whole: appearing important on the surface, but ultimately meaningless.

The opening scene of this film is something not to be believed. We are aware that young Ralph, who is lying in the back seat of a car is not asleep. When the car stops, his mother, Lauren, and her male companion, proceed to engage in sex in the front seat. Just to imagine that anyone in its right mind would take such a chance, let alone, knowing one's son might get to see, or hear, what's going on, is beyond comprehension. The relationship between Lauren and Harry Compton, higher ups in the British delegation in Swaziland, in the sixties, is on the border of collapse. Harry drinks too much and Lauren feels nothing for this man. When Lauren announces she is leaving father and son, she doesn't realize the effect it will cause on the young, and impressionable boy, who compensates his frustration with a nervous tic whenever he feels a stressful situation happening, or even on the alcoholic husband. Harry goes to marry an American, Ruby, a kind woman who takes to the young boy, who refuses her attentions at first, but he ends up bonding with her because she turns out to be a real friend. To make matters worse, Harry has gotten to the point of no return. His drinking is killing him. Ralph pleads with a local doctor to prescribe pills to help his father, but obviously, all comes too late. Richard E. Grant's directorial debut shows a man with a sensitivity for this drama, which we don't know if it's autobiographical, or maybe it might have been a story he might have witnessed during his childhood in that country. He gathered a cast of some of the best actors working in films today for this picture. By selecting "Camelot" as play the club is going to stage, makes perfect sense as this particular musical implies a bygone era that is fondly remembered. Gabriel Byrne is fine as Harry. Miranda Richardson shows a cruelty beyond human comprehension as Lauren. Nicholas Hoult makes an impression as the sensitive Ralph. Julie Walters is perfect as Gwen. Celia Imrie, a fine actress is great fun to watch as Lady Riva Harwick. "Wah-Wah" is an interesting film debut as it shows a talented actor that puts into practice what he learned in front of the camera.

The most striking aspect of this film is the sheer honesty of the whole thing. Certainly this must have been a heart wrenching assignment for Richard E. Grant. To showcase one's own life through the most traumatic of circumstances, is both noble and humbling. The moral double standards of Colonial Britain at it worst, coupled with what must be emotional scars etched into Richard's soul, produce a film of compelling proportions. The back drop of a breath-taking Swaziland landscape, is almost missed as the emotions sweep you away into a numbing sensation, constantly reminding you this is FACT not fiction. Adolescence for most is traumatic enough without the aid of a dysfunctional family at a time when this just "wouldn't do", and the worst anyone could be was a "divorcee". The portrayal of relationships with his parents, step-mother, and all his "uncles" and "aunts" is complex and exhausting for the viewer. There are raw and frank accounts of Richard's personal "demons", and how he attempted to overcome these during these difficult years of his life. The film showcases some wonderful acting. In particular, Gabriel Byrne as the father, Nicholas Hoult as 14 year old Richard, Julie Walters as Aunt Gwen, Emily Watson as the step-mother, and Celia Imrie as Lady Hardwick. All are exceptional in their roles. Rather than "hush hush" Richard has literally blown the whistle on British "properness"! Make it a short-listed film to see, you will not be disappointed.

This is a frustratingly awful film. I had high hopes but instead got an unoriginal story, told through a bland kid, with phoned-in performances from all the major cast (Miranda Richardson aside, although she didn't have to push herself), with dialogue that was stilted and cringe-inducing. Plus we just seemed to be going around in circles throughout. This film didn't have an original bone in it's body. It should be stuck on the Hallmark channel where I can ignore it. What a shame. The cinematography never inspired. With a canvas like Swasiland I expected a lot more of the cinematographer. An occasional vista shot even. But we got very few. Except for the dreadful pan back for a last shot that contained 2 characters who no body could give a damn about. This film has a strong cast, but Gabriel Byrne is going through some sort of acting crisis, and this performance won't help. Emily Watson is unrecognisable from her excellent turns in films like Punch Drunk Love. The rest of the cast struggle with brutal dialogue and simplistic colonial stereotypes; which gives rise to some of the most toe-curling dialogue. Richard E. Grant deserves a lot of respect for films he's been in and performances he's given, but he needs to step away from this needless shlocky sentimentalism and "Oh-look-how-brave-I-was" claptrap.

Richard E Grant's "autobiopic" is an illustration of Tolstoy's adage that while happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Grant's childhood in Swaziland as the son of a top colonial administrator (in education) could have been idyllic, but the idyll was shattered by his mother's infidelity and eventual desertion of the family and his father's severe alcoholism. Yet Grant could not stop loving either of them, and in the movie he seems to be saying, "yes, it hurt at the time, but I understand – and forgive." So despite the trauma, Grant gives us a fair account of his parents, lightly disguised as the Comptons, of their love for each other and their love for him. The second striking feature of the movie is the portrait of a small but immensely snobbish colonial society that was about to disappear. Appearances are everything so clandestine adultery is condoned but divorce very much disapproved of. Outsiders (for example Harry Compton's new American wife Ruby) are scarcely tolerated. This stern moral code was hardly needed to impress the natives, who were polygamous. The choice of "Camelot" as the entertainment put on by the denizens of the white social club for the Independence celebrations is ironically appropriate – for some of the whites it was indeed Camelot, and now it was about to end. Another theme of Grant's is growing up, generally a painful experience with or without dysfunctional parents. Here he is greatly helped by a fine performance from Nicholas Hoult as the 14 year old Richard ("Ralph" in the film). Miranda Richardson as the errant mother and Gabriel Byrnes as the father are also excellent and there are strong performances from the supporting cast, particularly Julie Walters as a deserted wife and Celia Imrie as the impossibly snobbish High Commissioner's wife. I'm not sure why, but Emily Watson's Ruby was only so-so. The people of Swaziland don't get much of a look-in – this is white mischief after all, but the actor who plays the warm-hearted local doctor (John Matshikiza?) should get an honorable mention. Since independence Swaziland has not done too well; according to Wikipedia it now has 39% of the adult population with HIV and the world's lowest life expectancy -32.6 years. The combined rule of the present king and "Great She-Elephant" (his mother) has not been a conspicuous success. The colonial days, which took the light form of a British Protectorate, must seem like Camelot even to the Swazis. This movie seems to have captured the atmosphere of the time as well as the pains of growing up.