Review: What We Did on Our Holiday
Perhaps hoping to replicate the recent film successes of fellow television scribes Brendan O'Carroll (Mrs. Brown's Boys D'Movie) and Iain Morris and Damon Beesley (The Inbetweeners Movie 1 & 2), Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkins transpose their popular British sitcom Outnumbered's winning formula of three precocious kids and their affectionately peeved parents onto the big screen, resulting in an amiable family comedy bookending a surprisingly less lighthearted middle section.
As Doug (David Tennant) and Abi (Rosamund Pike) corral their kids for a holiday in Western Scotland to celebrate Doug's father Gordie's (Billy Connolly) 75th birthday, it's quickly revealed that the bickering couple are already separated but have decided to play happy families so as not to upset the ailing Gordie. Eldest daughter Lottie (Emilia Jones) scribbles away in her notebook, tracking all the lies she's supposed to tell, whilst middle child Mickey (Bobby Smalldridge) would rather natter on about Vikings, and youngest daughter Jess (Harriet Turnbull) has adopted a small boulder and a good-sized brick as her newest friends.
Once they arrive in the Scottish Highlands, more family tension is introduced as Doug and wealthy older brother Gavin (Ben Miller) reignite their rivalry on and off the pitch, and Gavin's wife Margaret (Amelia Bullmore) tries to maintain some semblance of sanity following her recent breakdown in a local supermarket, the CCTV footage of which has received millions of hits on YouTube.
The ailing patriarch would rather avoid the hustle and bustle of the birthday party preparations and the usual family dysfunctions, so he decides to take his grandchildren out for a relaxing day at his favourite beach. There he imparts some life lessons to the fretful and resentful Lottie, telling her not to be angry with the people she loves for being who they are. "In the end, none of it matters." The filmmakers throw in a twist - let's describe it as Forbidden Games melded with one of Robert Klane's characters - that is so far removed from everything that's gone before it and everything that comes after it that it momentarily derails the film. It's the best thing in the otherwise piffling film, the one nugget of intrigue that is handled with surprising grace and sensitivity.
The adults aren't required to extend themselves too much and are free to rest on their considerable charms, which some of them do. Pike, in her last pre-Gone Girl role, radiates the steel and serenity that she would maximise to greater effect as Amazing Amy. The kids are the absolute stars with the wee moppet Turnbull stealing the show.
What We Did on Our Holiday
Directed by: Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkins
Written by: Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkins
Starring: Rosamund Pike, David Tennant, Billy Connolly, Ben Miller, Amelia Bullmore, Celia Imrie, Emilia Jones, Bobby Smalldridge, Harriet Turnbull
