Wah-Wah

I thought the movie was absolutely excellent. I saw it tonight and it held a very special place in my heart because i'm Swazi and I knew all about what was happening and Grant's family. I thought it was a very accurate portrayal of Swazis and Swazi culture. It was beautifully done because it was just a boy's view of the world around him. He didn't politicize the era, and he allowed the viewer to make his or her own judgments without trying to steer the audience. It was beautifully done. The settings and the scenes were structured beautifully and I felt as if I was in Swaziland. I realize how biased I am and I went to see the film with an American friend and we both appreciated Richard E. Grant's style. It is very obvious that he put a lot into this film and the result is captivating. I cried and I thought it was because i had a personal connection to the film but when the lights went up I noticed that I wasn't the only one shedding tears. I highly recommend this film to people who want to go on a journey. I just loved it!

Saw Wah-Wah at the Edinburgh International Film Festival – this is a really wonderful film. The story is told from the point of view of Ralph, a child witnessing the breakdown of his parent's marriage and dealing with his father's alcoholism and hasty remarriage. Both the colonial life and the adult relationships are seen, unflatteringly, from Ralph's perspective, and this could easily have been just another caricature of colonial decadence and the end of empire. In fact, despite the sombre story, it has humour and warmth as well as emotional impact. It also looks stunning: it is hard to believe this is Richard Grant's first film. All the cast give strong performances, even if most of them are hardly playing against type: Celia Imry could probably do the "upper-class bitch" and Julie Walters the "blowsy but good-hearted neighbour" in their sleep: but the core relationship between Ralph and his father Harry, played by Gabriel Byrne, is just electrifying. Byrne is totally convincing as the dedicated colonial administrator whose unresolved feelings for his first wife and fears for his future after independence drive him to alcoholism and nearly wreck his second marriage (to the also excellent Emily Watson). According to the press the film has yet to find a distributor: let's hope it is quickly picked up – this is ten times better than any of this summer's blockbusters, and deserves to be seen.

Richard E Grant's "autobiopic" is an illustration of Tolstoy's adage that while happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Grant's childhood in Swaziland as the son of a top colonial administrator (in education) could have been idyllic, but the idyll was shattered by his mother's infidelity and eventual desertion of the family and his father's severe alcoholism. Yet Grant could not stop loving either of them, and in the movie he seems to be saying, "yes, it hurt at the time, but I understand – and forgive." So despite the trauma, Grant gives us a fair account of his parents, lightly disguised as the Comptons, of their love for each other and their love for him.

The second striking feature of the movie is the portrait of a small but immensely snobbish colonial society that was about to disappear. Appearances are everything so clandestine adultery is condoned but divorce very much disapproved of. Outsiders (for example Harry Compton's new American wife Ruby) are scarcely tolerated. This stern moral code was hardly needed to impress the natives, who were polygamous. The choice of "Camelot" as the entertainment put on by the denizens of the white social club for the Independence celebrations is ironically appropriate – for some of the whites it was indeed Camelot, and now it was about to end.

Another theme of Grant's is growing up, generally a painful experience with or without dysfunctional parents. Here he is greatly helped by a fine performance from Nicholas Hoult as the 14 year old Richard ("Ralph" in the film). Miranda Richardson as the errant mother and Gabriel Byrnes as the father are also excellent and there are strong performances from the supporting cast, particularly Julie Walters as a deserted wife and Celia Imrie as the impossibly snobbish High Commissioner's wife. I'm not sure why, but Emily Watson's Ruby was only so-so. The people of Swaziland don't get much of a look-in – this is white mischief after all, but the actor who plays the warm-hearted local doctor (John Matshikiza?) should get an honorable mention.

Since independence Swaziland has not done too well; according to Wikipedia it now has 39% of the adult population with HIV and the world's lowest life expectancy -32.6 years. The combined rule of the present king and "Great She-Elephant" (his mother) has not been a conspicuous success. The colonial days, which took the light form of a British Protectorate, must seem like Camelot even to the Swazis. This movie seems to have captured the atmosphere of the time as well as the pains of growing up.

The most striking aspect of this film is the sheer honesty of the whole thing. Certainly this must have been a heart wrenching assignment for Richard E. Grant. To showcase one's own life through the most traumatic of circumstances, is both noble and humbling. The moral double standards of Colonial Britain at it worst, coupled with what must be emotional scars etched into Richard's soul, produce a film of compelling proportions. The back drop of a breath-taking Swaziland landscape, is almost missed as the emotions sweep you away into a numbing sensation, constantly reminding you this is FACT not fiction. Adolescence for most is traumatic enough without the aid of a dysfunctional family at a time when this just "wouldn't do", and the worst anyone could be was a "divorcee". The portrayal of relationships with his parents, step-mother, and all his "uncles" and "aunts" is complex and exhausting for the viewer. There are raw and frank accounts of Richard's personal "demons", and how he attempted to overcome these during these difficult years of his life. The film showcases some wonderful acting. In particular, Gabriel Byrne as the father, Nicholas Hoult as 14 year old Richard, Julie Walters as Aunt Gwen, Emily Watson as the step-mother, and Celia Imrie as Lady Hardwick. All are exceptional in their roles. Rather than "hush hush" Richard has literally blown the whistle on British "properness"! Make it a short-listed film to see, you will not be disappointed.

I've passed this one on the shelf a dozen times and happened to pick it up as my wife doesn't like dark comedy, shoot'em-ups or slap-stick. I knew it was a winner just seeing Gabriel Byrne, Miranda Richardson and Emily Watson. But, the story was excellent, young Nicholas Hoult was outstanding with the support of such talent like Julia Waters, Celia Imrie. Writer/Director Richard E. Grant has captured the petty intrigues and back-biting found in the British ex-pat colonial service of the 60s, along with the trysts, scandals and class distinction. The setting and depiction of the African scenes are breathtaking, albeit the focus is on the Brits in the process of returning this country to the Swazi. All in all, a great story, rife with human interest, fraught with human frailties and painted on a touching but not maudlin canvas and well worth watching.