Wah-Wah

Watching Wah-Wah, it’s virtually impossible for the viewer to feel anything other than complete and total apathy; apathy for the characters, apathy for the story, and apathy for director Richard E. Grant’s stylistic choices. It’s a shame, really, since the movie is actually fairly well made – particularly in terms of the performances, which are almost uniformly above-average. The film revolves around a young boy named Ralph Compton (played by Zachary Fox and Nicholas Hoult at different ages), who finds himself caught in the middle of his parent’s crumbling marriage. Years later, his father (Gabriel Byrne) marries a brash American (Emily Watson) who proceeds to shake things up in a big way. Wah-Wah marks Grant’s directorial debut, and given that the filmmaker also wrote the screenplay, there’s little doubt that the story holds a fair amount of personal meaning for him. Unfortunately, it also feels as though he’s made the movie just for himself – as there’s nothing here for the viewer to connect with. This is despite the inclusion of several dramatic moments, which – not surprisingly – provide virtually no emotional impact. The bottom line is that we’ve seen this sort of film countless times before, and Grant offers little in the way of innovation.

*1/2 out of ****