Wah-Wah

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Alain E From my perspective this is a remarkable movie touching the transition of a child into adolescence while at the same time his parents split and form new relationships and all this happens in Swaziland as it gains independence from the British Empire. The director did live in this part of Africa and I was born in a former French colony in Equatorial Africa. Professional reviewers did not think highly of the movie, on the other hand major actors decided to participate and I am sure their motivation was not multi million fees. The story avoids descending into cheap melodrama. Most characters are descent human beings with weaknesses. Cinematography is good and according to the credits the picture was shot in that part of Africa. The action in the movie involves mostly ordinary situations. There is no extreme violence, fast and furious driving or explicit sex. It is a sad realization that fifty years later the Africans have not succeeded so far to self govern their continent very successfully, but this was not known at the time described in this movie. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/14/24 Full Review Audience Member Wah-Wah provides occasionally affecting moments (such as the touching final scene) that offer the unfulfilled promise of a better story. However, despite everything that happens between the opening and end credits, the unevenness of the pacing results in a production that feels longer than its 97 minutes. And it is both surprising and disappointing that an actor of Richard E. Grant's stature proves unable to provoke better performances from some of his stars. Overall, the plot of Wah-Wah is as unmemorable as the title. An okay one time watch but with so much content available- why would you? Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member Written and directed by Richard E. Grant, this is a semi-autobiographical film based upon Grant's life growing up as a youngster in Swaziland, which at the time was still under the rule of the crumbling British Empire, and it's last days until it was granted independence. It's a very good coming-of-age drama with some good performances and a lot of local colour of the time period it's set in. Set between the mid 1960's to the early 1970's, this tells the story of Ralphie Compton (Zac Fox and Nicholas Hoult), whose father Harry (Gabriel Byrne) has ties with the aristocracy who lives in Swaziland. However, his mother Lauren (Miranda Richardson) leaves Harry for another man, and Ralphie goes to boarding school. A few years later, he comes back home to find out that Harry has married Ruby (Emily Watson), who works as a stewardess for American Airlines. Although Ruby and Ralphie don't connect at first, they soon do, but when Lauren comes back into Ralphie's life, Harry descends into serious alcoholism. Grant called upon a lot of favours to get this film made, but he shows a lot of confidence in his directing and his writing, even if it was a difficult production, with a "control freak producer" as Grant put it and only 7 weeks to film it. But, it looks brilliant, and he was lucky in having a good cast on screen to portray his childhood. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member A long melodramatic soap opera set in 1960s Swaziland. The setting kept me interested for the first half hour but I soon gave up under the weight of cheesy melodramatic strings and flying plates. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member What a disappointment! This movie was just a bunch of random dramatic scenes strung together for the sake of being dramatic...some of the acting was pretty great but most of it was based on stereotypes of "bold brass American woman" and "angry post-divorce alchoholic" that the actors seemingly saw in a high school play. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member I loved this movie. Walters is amazing as always. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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