A tale of getting lost in the Caribbean, and not necessarily in a good way...

“Have to do things the hard way sometimes,” our hero, Max, is told by one of the locals – a mantra that proves true to his disastrous but enlightening Caribbean adventure in Wah Do Dem.

Brooklyn musician, skate boarder and soccer player Max wins two cruise tickets, but his girlfriend, Willow (Norah Jones), dumps him two days before the cruise. With supportive but busy friends, no-one is able to get the time off work to accompany him so Max goes alone.

Pictures of elderly couples on the cruise website modelling appropriate formal wear are unfortunately representative of the average age group on the boat. Surrounded by white headed, pot-bellied moob-sporting men and their wives - all at least double his age, Max is mistaken for staff by a juggler he meets. With miserable weather and poor TV reception to follow the election, Max gets drunk in his room before befriending staff and attending a private crew party.

Inspired by the juggler's rainforest recommendation, Max decides to explore the islands and is harassed by locals before meeting a guy who offers him a ride to the beautiful Mahogany Beach. Supping on “Red Stripe – stronger than tea” lying in the shade, he finally feels contended until he returns from a swim to find his belongings missing.

From then on out, Max's Jamaican experience is full of calamities - getting a bus in the wrong direction, missing the boat, the next bus to the Embassy in Kingston breaking down, the roads flooding and having a knife pulled on him. After he spends the first night on the beach and the situation becomes truly dire, it's impossible not to feel for him. Wah Do Dem translates as “What's Wrong With Them?”, perhaps suggestive of Max's initial impression of the locals.

Although unlucky in transport, Max meets plenty of colourful characters along the way, playing football with locals, dirty dancing in celebration of Obama's victory, hearing “the lyrical machine” and meeting reggae group, The Congos. By far the most interesting character he crosses paths with is a mystical poet who claims to have been waiting a long time for him and offers to show him the way to Kingston, guiding him through the rainforest and delivering lines like: “Reach out to the end of the world without moving.”

Sean Bones plays Max with a perfect combination of naivety and curiosity, creating small observational humour. The contrast of his souvenir photographs with others around is one smirking point, while the funniest scene in the film is the gym work-out competition when Max encounters the only other lone male on the boat remotely resembling his age. The dilemma of whether to approach this stranger or not is so familiar it's difficult not to be amused as the awkwardness escalates.

With a fantastic reggae soundtrack, experimentation with Jamaican patois and capturing the Caribbean flavour - flora and fauna; energy; people and sounds, Wah Do Dem is almost like a documentary without the narrative, depicting the vulnerability of the lone traveller and first impressions of a culture.

Director/Writer: Ben Chace, Sam Fleischner
Release Date: August 27 2010
Running Time: 76 mins
Certificate: 15
Starring: Sean Bones, Norah Jones, Carl Bradshaw, Kevin Bewersdorf, Mark Gibbs

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