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80An unforced, engaging and surprisingly incisive account of the disintegration of British rule in Africa.
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80Both acidly funny and very moving.
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75Wah-Wah has a sequence, based on old newsreels, in which the flag is lowered and the sun sets on another bit of the empire. Odd how many critics have felt the whole movie should be about this. I don't see why. The story is about people who lived closed lives, and a film about them would necessarily give independence only a supporting role.
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75Thanks to Grant's script and direction, the exotic Swaziland location (a film first) and an engaging cast, this smartly crafted drama radiates a gently comic pulse.
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75The fascinating aspect of the rambling and involving film is how Ralph and this no-nonsense dame who married Dad become confederates.
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75Grant is a fine actor ("Withnail and I," "Gosford Park") and, although he doesn't appear in Wah-Wah, his spiritedness as a performer carries through to some of the others in his cast.
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75The film is so well acted -- by Byrne, who makes Harry's internalized agonies and continuously carried torch for his ex-wife touching, and by Watson and Hoult -- that its more cloying moments, including a staged version of the musical "Camelot" (which is too long), are a moot point.
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75Wah-Wah can't sustain the mastery of its superior first hour, but it maintains a core of truth that sets it apart from less-convincing depictions of boys becoming men.
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70Veteran actor Richard E. Grant makes his writing and directing debut with Wah-Wah, a startling portrait of his own startling and unusual childhood, growing up in Swaziland in the waning days of the British Empire in Africa.
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Yet for all its studied snobbery and brittle entitlement, the film is never mean-spirited: even Ralph's monstrous parents are treated with more compassion than they deserve. Clearly, Mr. Grant's memories are more fond than bitter - even if the same probably can't be said of the Swazis.
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70Flavorsome performances by a seasoned cast, held in check by Grant's traditional but well-crafted, always cinematic direction.
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70Grant's unblinking but sympathetic depiction of this emotionally unhinged world makes the viewer feel like an illicit, enlightened gawker, and it has the enormous fringe benefit of fine performers, including Richardson, who puts endearing vigor into the adulterous Lauren, and Julie Walters, Ralph's aunt, who tells the boy her frequent tipsiness is a recurring case of "sunstroke."
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67Never less than good but it's also never quite great.
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63Wah-Wah's characters are wonderfully human and flawed and still capable of stirring empathy, which is appealing. But in the end, the film isn't saying much at all.
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63Though the raw material is juicy stuff, the details and the larger picture never come together and the cast is uneven.
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60Though far from expert filmmaking - visual clichés fly thick and fast - the movie has a swooning feel for the stark beauty of the African kingdom in which it was shot.
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58An overdeveloped coming-of-age potboiler.
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58As in so many films directed by actors, there's a generosity shown to performance that results in many lifelike moments.
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There isn't enough heft to the story to pull everything together. Watching it is like trying to assemble a puzzle that's missing pieces.
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50To label the parents in Wah-Wah dysfunctional doesn't adequately describe their wildly inappropriate behavior.
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50As coming of age stories go, Wah-Wah does little to distinguish itself.
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50About as gripping as its title.
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That the film is semi- autobiographical for caustic actor-turned-writer-director Richard E. Grant helps explain its severely, sometimes laughably bitter tone.
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50This is a hokey, old-fashioned melodrama in which the actors scream more often than necessary.
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25The story lacks focus. The senses blur as wives and ex-wives come and go, and Harry regularly falls off the wagon, only to reform the next day.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 4 out of 5
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Mixed: 0 out of 5
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Negative: 1 out of 5
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ChadS.7
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JonoN.9Delightful, engrossing and thorougly entertaining.
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RobertI.7Touches you emotionally in a way that an old-fashioned film can do: Swaziland becomes a metaphor for global change in the lives of strong characters.