Wah-Wah (2006)

Excellent but underrated film

A Masterpiece!

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The script for this is awful; it probably wouldn't have seen the light of day if Richard E Grant hadn't written it. Every line is obvious, a few make you cringe, and basically a creative writing undergraduate could have written similar tosh.I liked the film quite a lot, though. Nicholas Hoult is one of my favourite young actors, and puts in a solid performance, looking convincing in the unusual and enjoyable movie setting of Africa post-empire – the first film ever shot in Swaziland, reportedly. Grant is a legend too, and his directing is better than his writing. He frames a believable portrait of a sleepy, dull, dying outpost, without romanticizing or condemning it, resisting the endless shots of wild savannah soundtracked by tribal drum featuring 'world music' that generally plague anything set in Africa. It is to his credit that the feature never lapses into cliché and laziness. The colourful costumes add to the feel of it.Still, despite my positive expectations it is a shame to say that the film isn't any better than average. The plot, insomuch as there is one, couldn't be described as compelling or even interesting. The flaws in the script have already been detailed, and the acting on the whole is just passable. Really, this feels like an episode of Wild Of Heart rather than a high end film with some big names, and so it only really works as mindless wallpaper to pass a dull afternoon.

I love this film! I've been a fan of Richard E Grant for a long time, and this film is just the cream on the cake. :) He is a great writer and director (and of course, a fantastic actor) and I love the way he introduces Swaziland to us. The actors are perfect for the roles. The soundtrack is also fantastic. I was crying and laughing. It really touches your heart. When I first saw it I immediately knew that the film has something to tell. Having a childhood like Richard had is not an easy thing. What I love the most is the way he shows the family connections, pain, and big decisions through the eyes of a child. A great film! I recommend it to anyone.

Richard E. Grant's life must have been spectacularly insular, because there are hardly any moments when a country's native African population get any valuable screen time. Hell, GONE WITH THE WIND had three supporting characters, all black, sharing equal screen time with the film's white stars (even if this sentence sounds wildly inappropriate, there is really no other way to say it, and anyway, I am right.). In more than one instance, they also practically walked off with the scene they were in, and Butterfly McQueen's line "I ain't no nuthin' 'about birthin' babies!!" has gone into cinema history as one of the most popular quotes of the movie alongside "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." I could even go into my own life living it in Dominican Republic, a country with a seventy-five percent mulatto population. While I went to an American-Canadian school, my life wasn't that insulated to the political unrest that was the order of the day. If I would have to ever write anything about life in the Dominican Republic from 1979 - 1996 I would and could not exclude an entire population in lieu of creating a pretty soap opera about familial divorce... which is exactly what WAH-WAH turns out to be for its entire run. Not that this is a bad thing, but aside from this glaring discrepancy, there isn't much else going for a story that tries to have depth, tries to focus on the fall of an empire, and succeeds in doing neither.

Sitting in any American cinema audience, one is always aware that battle will have to be fought with the munchers, crunchers, cell phone brigade and plastic bag gang. Well done to Richard E Grant who silenced them all. Unlike many others, I held back my tears until the last five minutes but the view from his father's graveside undid me utterly. As the lights came on and I dabbed at my wet face, I realized that all around me people were doing exactly the same and I daresay hardly any of them had ever heard of Swaziland. I lived in Lesotho (Basutoland) at around the same time and the divisions between Black and White, traders and ex pats, Brits and South Africans were exactly the same. We all drank far too much and personal relationships were under a constant spotlight but it afforded us an extraordinary way of life that has now vanished completely. "Wah Wah" captured it all and my sincere thanks to Richard E Grant and his excellent cast for taking me back in time. We are now ordering the film and holding a "Wah Wah" party for all the homesick Southern Africans who have washed up on these far away shores. "Khotso Pula Nala". (Peace Rain and Prosperity).