WAH-WAH

Director: Richard E. Grant
Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Miranda Richardson, Nicholas Hoult, Emily Watson, Julie Walters, Zachary Fox
Run Time: 97 minutes
Country: United Kingdom /South Africa/France
Rating: 14A (Domestic violence, sexually suggestive scene)

"Shooting in Swaziland , cinematographer Pierre Aim and designer Garry Williamson splendidly recapture the colonialist past of white linen, teatime and cricket."

Kirk Honeycutt , Hollywood Reporter

WAH-WAH, Richard E. Grant's impressive directorial debut, is a big-hearted, crowd-pleasing film that opened the 2005 Edinburgh Film Festival and was presented at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival®.

Lifting an early chapter from Grant's own life, WAH-WAH depicts his coming- of-age in Swaziland in the final days of the British Empire, offering an intimate perspective on Britain's imperial venture while vividly revealing one boy's creative awakening.

With neither cynicism nor false nostalgia, WAH-WAH paints a remarkable portrait of people overtaken by history. Ralph Compton (a surrogate for Grant played as an adult by Zachary Fox and as a teenager by ABOUT A BOY's Nicholas Hoult) grows up among military men and restless colonials whose sources of amusement are limited to gin and adultery. Ralph's father (Gabriel Byrne, THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY, SPIDER) is a cuckold bent on drinking himself clear of his misery. Wife Lauren (Miranda Richardson, FALLING ANGELS, SPIDER) flaunts her bad behaviour and runs off with the square-jawed neighbour. When Emily Watson appears as Ralph's new stepmother, the candour of the film's perspective comes into focus. A brassy American, she looks at this tribe of Brits - with their white linens and foppish slang - and cannot help but laugh. Grant cuts close to the bone in portraying the comical white mischief in this African outpost. The chaos at home has its sobering effects, driving Ralph against his father and stoking an inner turmoil that, soon enough, will forge his creative mind.

Watson is a thrill to watch, while Byrne, in an impressively textured and committed performance, perfectly conveys Harry's quicksilver mood changes. Richardson , meanwhile, manages her switches from devoted mother to acid-tongued bitch and back again with frightening ease.

"Flavoursome performances by a seasoned cast, held in check by Grant's traditional but well-crafted, always cinematic direction."

Derek Elley , Variety