Wah-Wah (2005) R - 2½ Stars

The movie is full of wah wahing. It seems everyone has something to wah over. This family is in turmoil when the wife has an afair with the dads best friend. The son gets caught in the middle and sent to a boarding school. Drinking, adultery, snubing and complaining, this society could all use a valium.

Young Ralph Compton (Zachary Fox) is 11 and growing up in the 60's. His father Harry (Gabriel Byrne), is the minister of education in the African nation of Swaziland. Harry discovers his wife Lauren (Miranda Richardson) is having an affair with his best friend and starts to drink too much. Stuck in the middle, Ralph is sent to a boarding school to be out of the way.

It's 1969 and three years later, and older Ralph (Nicholas Hoult) returns home to find his father has married Ruby (Emily Watson), after knowing her only six weeks. Ruby and Ralph are stand offish with each other at first but eventually become close knowing each other better than most. When mom number one wants to return home, Ruby is put down by the society surrounding them and the women use phrases like "hobbly-jobbly" and other snooty remarks. Eventually Harry and his son Ralph will put their relationship to a test when Harry points a gun at Ralph because he doesn't care to hear anymore about himself. Meanwhile, Lauren decides to forgive and forget, comes back to the family, the only way this family is going to stop their wahing.

Roadside Attractions
Director: Richard E. Grant
Writer: Richard E. Grant
Producers: Pierre Kubel, Jeff Abberley, Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar

I viewed 12/07