Film Review: What we did on our Holiday

The plan is for the family to celebrate the grandfather's 75th birthday up in Scotland, but like a lot of best laid plans, the whole thing rapidly goes to pot, in a perfectly off kilter way.

The film has been marketed and trailered as a family comedy, but here is the disclaimer - its not completely that.
Fair warning: there are some teary moments, and its a pity the MTV Movie Awards' "Best WTF Moment" nominees have been announced, because there are several in this film that would probably wipe the board on that one.

Doug (David Tennant) and Abi (Rosamund Pike) and their three young kids (who steal the show) Jess, Lottie and Mickey (Harriet Turnbull, Emilia Jones and Bobby Smalldridge respectively) travel up to Scotland to Doug's brother Gavin's (Ben Miller) and his wife Margaret (Amelia Bullmore) house. Their son Kenneth, is portrayed by Lewis The grandfather, Gordie - portrayed by Billy Connolly - really, who else could do that role, is the perfect foil to the strait-laced antics of his sons and daughters in law.

Annette Crosbie, Celia Imrie round out the supporting cast.

Its a pretty good film, the scenery is just spectacular and if you can manage the cringe worthy moments, its worthwhile to watch.


Comments

  1. Film & TV Commentator10 March 2015 at 02:15

    This quote comes from another family dramedy.

    Evelyn Wright: "We have to talk.
    Deborah Clasky: Mother, are you buzzed?
    Evelyn Wright: No. I quit drinking weeks ago! No one noticed, but I guess that's a pretty good indicator that I conducted myself quite well when I was drunk. But this isn't about me right now."

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Film Review: Moneyball

Most of the sports films that have been made, have had very Hollywood plot lines. It was almost a recipe. Underdog team/coach/player/ whatever, trying to do something. A few montages of things going badly, then a winning formula, or new coach/player that tells them "they just have to believe in themselves" or teaches them how to work together with a few gimmicks. Which means, when you watch a well written film like Moneyball, you are completely unprepared by the realism and length of film that really tells you the true story. Or close to it, at least. With Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillan (Mr Zaillan wrote screenplays for The Interpreter, American Gangster and Clear and Present Danger) writing the screenplay, Brad Pitt portraying the character listed and the direction is tight and without any excess scenes, Bennet Miller was nominated for an Academy Award for his work with the film Capote - its a film worth watching for the all of the above and the finished product that
Read more

Film Review: Theater Camp

 In the middle of year six, I started attending Helen O'Grady's Drama Academy. Typical education sneakiness of actually teaching kids the skills to enable them to be confident out in the "real world" and with the fun bonus of how to project your voice while simultaneously messing about on the "stage" and acting out improvisation prompts and at the end of each year, a whole play. Nearly seven years, growing and learning in community buildings, after school during term time.  Good times all round. And it was definitely part of the draw card for me, for this new film, set at a summer theatre camp that beautifully illustrates the allure of performing on stage, telling stories and bringing them to life, for both the kids that attend and the teachers - and it's hard to tell who is the more committed or passionate about the craft. It's clearly a labour of love for Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Noah Galvin and Nick Lieberman - all four wrote it, the first three a
Read more

TV Series Review: Strike

For as long as there have been mysteries, there have been people to solve them. Private detectives, police people, consulting detectives, army types, Mi5, Mi6, spooks, G-Men, CIA, its easy to get lost in the myriad of them all. Which makes it all the harder for a new one to stand out from the rest. Cormoran Strike, ex-army, fits the bill of the usual with an interesting character and mysterious backstory that gets tantalisingly dripped out and sprinkled in with the case of the week, but what makes this character different and stand out from the rest, for me at least, is his sense of humour. Plenty of detective films/series have one, but sometimes it just the plot with the comedic elements, or the characters themselves. Not both, like this one. And another element that goes hand in hand - the humanity. Both Strike and his new receptionist/assistant, Robin Ellacott - have it, but not overly so, or barely showing. Its a real person, people that they're portraying here and th
Read more