Wah-Wah
Picture:
B- Sound: C+ Extras: C- Film: C
In a
still Apartheid-drenched South Africa, a drunken military man (Gabriel Byrne)
loses his wife (Julie Walters) and does only so much to help raise his son
(Nicholas Hoult) in Richard E. Grant’s wildly predictable and obvious
drama/comedy Wah-Wah 2005). Just when things seem bad, the father takes
up with a new woman (Emily Watson) who is not that helpful or too relevant to
Ralph (Hoult) and the story drags on.
Starting
in the late 1960s, the idea is that this is supposed to be a coming-of-age
story, but we never really learn very much about the characters and this can
become pretentious more than this critic expected. The peak of this is when Ralph sneaks into a
screening of Kubrick’s A Clockwork
Orange, we even get a graphic match of Malcolm McDowell’s face over Ralph’s
in the worst moment in the film. I
cannot believe how lame the film becomes.
What were they thinking? It is
only because the actors and supporting cast have some good moments that this is
not a total turkey.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 Super 35mm-shot film lensed by cinematographer
Pierre Aim, A.F.C., has good color and enough good definition to make watching
this easier. The actual camerawork is
mixed, though the locations can be pleasant.
The Dolby Digital 5.0 mix is subdued and dialogue-based, with surrounds
only kicking in sometimes. There are no
extras except some previews with other Sony previews.
- Nicholas Sheffo
