The feel-good movie of the summer may well be this disarmingly charming little film about truths and lies, and how silly it all looks from a child鈥檚 vantage point.
In What We Did On Our Holiday, Abi and Doug (Rosamund Pike and David Tennant) set off on a road trip to Scotland to visit Doug鈥檚 dad (Billy Connolly), who is reluctantly celebrating his 75th birthday in grand style. It will likely be his last: Gordie has the big C and the medication is wreaking havoc on his heart. An ignoble end for a man who spent his 30th birthday in Rhodesia and played pro soccer for Partick Thistle FC.
Accompanying their parents are three children: Lottie (Emilia Jones), who brings along an anxiety journal; Mickey (Bobby Smalldridge), armed with a Viking sword; and Jess (Harriet Turnbull), who carries with her an enormous brick called Norman. The forever-bickering couple make their three kids swear not to mention the fact that mommy and daddy live in separate houses: they need to keep up appearances in case granddad鈥檚 ticker gives way.
England鈥檚 motorway gridlock is replaced by bucolic Highland vistas, and the dysfunctional McLeod family arrives at Doug鈥檚 brother鈥檚 house (Ben Miller), awash in uptight party preparations. A fresh round of bickering begins, sibling style, and the kids wisely steal away with their grandfather, who has better things to do with his remaining time.
There鈥檚 nothing particularly new here. Both the old and the young have things to teach the rest of us about how to live life honestly, and to its fullest. Gordie鈥檚 advice of 鈥渃ut loose, go mental鈥� aids two of his grandkids, who are inhibited by the white lies, fighting and expectations of their parents.
Tennant, best known on this side of the Atlantic as the 10th Dr. Who and the detective from Broadchurch, is great as the harried father; Pike (Gone Girl) is equally effective. And anyone familiar with Connolly鈥檚 comedy recognizes that he is perfectly suited to a role whose first line is 鈥渂ugger off鈥� and whose last line is a fart.
The film was written and directed by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, who dealt with similarly harassed parenting crises in their Brit sitcom Outnumbered. The real gift to the film are the child actors: questioning rather than cloying, precocious but still on the cute (rather than irritating) side as they puzzle over lesbian babies and play Jenga with their plate of chips.
A dark turn at the midpoint is dealt with so matter-of-factly by the children that it barely registers as sinister.
Veteran actors Celia Imrie and Annette Crosbie lend somewhat superlative support to a film that meanders a bit but ultimately wins us over with honesty and fresh humour.
What We Did On Our Holiday opens Friday at Fifth Avenue Cinemas.
