I’m still not sure what inspired me to see Wah Do Dem (What They Do). Was it the odd sounding title? Norah Jones’ name in the credits or the interesting sounding synopsis; take your pick as any one of those may be correct. As the film opened, I started to think that perhaps I’d made a grievous mistake. The characters were a little too hipster for me, the music wasn’t what I’d expected and the acting even less but already comfortable in my seat, I thought to give the film a try.

Max wins a Jamaican cruise. For a year he and his girlfriend have been planning the trip which will give them free access to Jamaica aboard a liner which will provide all the food they can eat and the R&R they may need except a few days before the trip, Max gets dumped. After unsuccessful attempts to convince any of his friends to go with him, the lure of Jamaica is just too good to pass up and he decides to take the trip alone. When the ship finally arrives, Max takes off for the tourist free areas of the city, meets a few locals, goes to a beach and loses his stuff. If that’s not bad enough, he also misses his ride back to the US and ends up with no money and no clothes or shoes (other than the swim trunks he’s wearing) on a trek to the American embassy in Kingston, four hours away.

Wah Do Dem (What They Do) spends much too long setting up the film’s premise especially when the circumstances are dull compared to the adventure Max embarks on when he finds himself alone on the road in the backwaters of Jamaica. It’s his travels through small communities and his quick friendships that mark the film’s best moments. His encounters with the locals are intimate and provide a look at the real Jamaica, not the cities filled with restaurants and shops catering to the passing tourists. Max meets the natives in their everyday lives, partakes in their food, their music and their customs and it’s these encounters that makes the film worthwhile.

An interesting idea, Wah Do Dem (What They Do) suffers from a weak set-up which is only made worse by Sean Bones’ bland acting (Norah Jones’ is hardly worth mentioning as she has all of 5 minutes of screen time – if that) but Bones’ wide eyed wonder that drags the film down in the opening 20 minutes is also one of the film’s most compelling features once the story picks up in Jamaica as the character provides the perfect mixture of innocence and understanding. Considering that writer/directors Ben Chace and Sam Fleischner came up with the idea for the film when one of them won a free cruise, I’m curious to see what they come up with for their next project. With this debut they’ve shown potential for good things to come.