What We Did on Our Holidays
Film & TV
If there is an echo of the delightful British TV series Outnumbered in this movie, it may be because Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton also created What We Did on Our Holiday. Both revolve around two beleaguered parents: here, Doug and Abi McLeod (David Tennant and Rosamund Pike) and their three kids.
The McLeods’ first task is to get the family to Scotland for the 75th birthday party of Doug’s father (Billy Connolly as Gordie) and, once there, to act as if nothing is wrong between them. From the beginning, the shambles of their departure is contrasted with the calm of the lochs far to their north.
Although you can smell the nature of the coming crisis, and perhaps also the resolution, right from the opening exposition, the plot journey there is pleasant enough.
Jess (Harriet Turnbull), the youngest child, is particularly like her Outnumbered counterpart Karen, with an eccentric view on life and prone to disarming comments. She is a contrast to serious Lottie, the oldest, who maintains a notebook in which to record how the world works and, especially, to sustain herself through her parents’ marital discord. She is the one who keenly feels the double-edged nature of the truth.
In between is Mickey (Bobby Smalldridge), besotted with all things Viking and wielding a plastic sword. You know that they are all going to be called on to step beyond their own expectations.
Connolly as Gordie mostly plays himself in a slow and amiable way, often inclined to homilies about facing the end of one’s days. Tennant does the bamboozled and ineffective father well, and Ben Miller, as his brother Doug, is well cast as the uptight wealthy brother with whom Gordie lives. Rosamund Pike as Abi is a good foil for Tennant and Amelia Bullmore, Doug’s wife Margaret, tweaks her role beautifully with both nuances of expression and a lovely capacity for some contrasting slapstick.
There is an underlying theme of finding out what is really important in life. Sometimes what matters is being irreverent, seeing silliness and pompousness for what they are, and being ready to break a few rules where necessary. Always what matters is the power of love. Such epiphanies arrive on the tail of events that spill into everyone’s lives on the day of the elaborate birthday celebration.
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The ending is not overly sugared. British movies often seem to engage with issues of death through moods that alternate light and shade while retaining overall realism. There is some gimmickry in What We Did on Our Holiday, but it wears its inclinations well.
Ultimately, this is a warm-hearted but unremarkable movie with which to while away 95 minutes. The bonus is plenty of big-landscape views of Scottish scenery as an accomplished cast works its way through a fairly predictable feel-good story.
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