Wah-Wah

 

Wah-Wah 2005

• Director: Richard E Grant
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Miranda Richardson, Emily Watson, Gabriel Byrne, Julie Walters, Celia Imre, Julian Wadham, Fenella Woolgar, John Matshikiza
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Nicholas Hoult – X-Men, The Favourite, Mad Max Fury Road, Jack the Giant Slayer, Wallander, About a Boy, Intimate Relations
• Miranda Richardson - Testament of Youth, Harry Potter, Made in Dagenham, Young Victoria, Paris je t’aime, Gideon’s Daughter, Phantom of the Opera, The Hours, Black Adder, The Crying Game, An Enchanted April, Dance with a Stranger  
• Emily Watson – Chernobyl, Little Women, Everest, Testament of Youth, The Theory of Everything, The Book Thief, The Politician’s Husband, Cemetery Junction, Fireflies in the Garden, Equilibrium, Punch-Drunk Love, Gosford Park, The Luzhin Defense, Cradle Will Rock, Hilary & Jackie, The Boxer, Breaking the Waves
• Gabriel Byrne – Hereditary, Quirke, Emotional Arithmetic, Jindabyne, Ghost Ship, Stigmata, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Dead Man, The Usual Suspects, Little Women, Prince of Jutland, Gothic
• Julie Walters – Mamma Mia 1&2, Before You Go, The Hollow Crown Henry IV Parts One and Two, Henry V, Harry Potter 1-8, Becoming Jane, Driving Lessons, Secret Garden, Calendar Girls, Billy Elliot, Titanic Tow, Intimate Relations, Prick Up Your Ears, Educating Rita
• Celia Imrie – Mamma Mia, Absolutely Fabulous, Hotel Marigold 1&2, What We Did on Our Holiday, The Love Punch, Doctor Who, Cranford, The Calendar Girls, Daniel Deronda, Hilary & Jackie, Frankenstein
• Julian Wadham – The Casual Vacancy, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, The English Patient, The Madness of King George, Middlemarch
• Fenella Woolgar – Victoria & Abdul, Mr Turner, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Doctor Who, Bright Young Things
• John Matshikiza – Beyond Borders, Cry Freedom, The Singing Detective
• Why? The cast
• Seen: Once before. Now 17 July 2023      

       Ralph (Hoult) is growing up in Swaziland, witnessing the toxic end to his parents’ marriage. He is heartbroken when his mother (Richardson) leaves, but he tries to comfort his drunken father (Byrne).

       The white ladies of the colony flock to comfort him, especially Auntie Gwen (Walters), whose husband the mother has run off with.

       One holiday, upon return home, Ralph finds that his father has married mouthy kind-hearted former air hostess Ruby (Watson). At first, he is horrified but when Ruby stirs things up by being disrespectful of the snooty white upper class, he warms to her.

       With the background of Swaziland’s independence and the glossed over racism of the white colonists, this is really the autobiographical explanation of how Richard E Grant got into the theatre. 

4 * of 5