Richard Grant, however, make the
leap, and certainly not with deeply felt semi-memoirs like Wah-Wah, which recounts in only slightly compacted fashion his
coming-of-age in the late 1960s during the final stages of British rule in
Swaziland, South Africa.
is charitably inclined toward its indie rhythms and indulgences — gives full,
contradictory three-dimensionality to all of its main characters, Wah-Wah takes as its lead young teenager
Ralph Compton (About a Boy’s Nicholas
Hoult), who is beset by nervous tics. After his father Harry (Gabriel Byrne, above left),
the local Minister of Education, and philandering mother Lauren (Miranda
Richardson) split up, pop capriciously takes up with an American, brassy
erstwhile stewardess Ruby (Emily Watson, above right), as well as, more frequently, the bottle.
Prone to violent rages and weepy, morning-after apologies, Harry becomes a more
and more erratic figure in his son’s life, leading Ralph to both develop strong
bonds with Ruby and explore his own creativity, through puppetry and acting.
Ruby causes waves, much to the consternation of stuffy neighbor Lady Hardwick
(Celia Imrie), by teaching the maid to read and sponsoring the (black) gardener
for a spot in a theater production; Ralph, meanwhile, scandalously cons his way
into a screening of A Clockwork Orange.
menace or boozy laughs, Grant isn’t afraid to showcase a fuller emotional
spectrum. As in life, the feelings and rationalizations on display in Wah-Wah change, sometimes at a moment’s
notice. Perhaps most interesting is the manner in which the movie assays a
slowly healthily step-parent relationship, as well as its meticulous attention
in regard to the detail of its hermetically sealed, colonial ex-pat setting,
and the inherent panic that living there at that time must have induced.
elicitations of performance from his ensemble cast notwithstanding, I still
found my attention wandering a good bit during Wah-Wah. It feels longer than its 98 minutes. The movie certainly
bears the undeniable stamp of auteurism, but its novel and abrupt shifts in
rhythm also just as frequently undercut both any traditional sense of mounting
tension and, paradoxically, at least some of its realistic sense of rooted place.
For all its idiosyncratic delights, one can’t help but want a little more
firmly laid track underneath the narrative.
video transfer with rich and consistent colors and very little grain, and also
comes with a Dolby digital 5.1 audio track. There are unfortunately no
supplemental features, which is both fairly puzzling and mortally wounding for
the release of such a personal film. C (Movie) D+ (Disc)