WAH-WAH
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Best known as an actor, Richard E. Grant wrote and directed this drama inspired by his youth in Swaziland. His parents feud and break up, and his alcoholic father remarries. Boredom makes for a small society rife with alcoholism and adultery throughout the British community. It is a story with strong drama, but as tales of painful pasts go it is not particularly new or unusual. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
Richard E. Grant is a familiar face from British dramatic productions. Americans may remember him playing Jack Seward in "BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA or as the hero of several made-for- television Scarlet Pimpernel" films. As an actor he always has a certain tension in his acting as if deep down he is never comfortable with himself. With his new film, which he writes and directs but does not appear in, we find out why. WAH-WAH is the thinly-veiled memoir of his days growing up in the British community in Swaziland, most of whom work for the British government, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The adult figures in Ralph Compton's life (Compton is played by Nicholas Hoult) live in luxury and monotony. It is too much luxury and too much monotony, so they get into mischief. Mischief comes there in two ever-popular forms: it comes in bottles and in other people's mates. Ralph's father Harry Compton (Gabriel Byrne) goes in for the former and his mother Lauren Compton (Miranda Richardson) prefers the latter. There is time aplenty and more for these hobbies and Harry is frequently drunk and abusive, Lauren is frequently, well, not home. To nobody's surprise the marriage breaks up and to nobody's surprise Harry marries again. But Ralph's new mother is a surprise, at least to the community. She is brash and plain-spoken Ruby (Emily Watson, not usually noted for brash roles). Much like Debra Winger in SHADOWLANDS she speaks her mind and is a woman of great strength, perhaps strong enough to mend some broken lives.
There is not much we have not seen here before. The adult community is reminiscent of WHITE MISCHIEF with some ICE STORM thrown in. They try to keep busy, when they are not singing old World War II songs, by putting on a local production of CAMELOT, ironically a play that is about infidelity and the damage it causes, and it is the prefect mirror for the community. When Grant wrote the film he did not whitewash Ralph as being purely blameless. Ralph also has some strong character flaws. The film is not really licking his wounds, but is more a tribute to his stepmother who rescued him from the weakness of his biological parents.
Hoult plays the role well. Grant gave him an unusual piece of business. Rather than expressing anger, particularly when being used as a pawn by his feuding parents, he has a gesture that seems silently to mimic a lion's roar. Everybody sees this and nobody ever comments on it. I wonder it if really was a habit of Grant as a child.
Grant could have played up the natural beauty of the Swaziland settings, but seems to do very little of that. That is probably mostly because that is not the point of the film. But a director who is an outsider to this part of the world might have been so struck by the natural beauty that it would become a character of the film. Grant grew up taking the look of the area for granted and does not seem to be so tempted.
The title, if you were wondering, comes from the cutesy upper- class slang that the Brits in Swaziland used. It is all rather a sticky wicket, but only Ruby will say that it all sounds like Wah-Wah-Wah. What is here is heartfelt, but not really new. I rate WAH-WAH a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Copyright 2006 Mark R. Leeper
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