Film review: What We Did On Our Holiday

What We Did On Our Holiday
Screenplay and Direction by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin

You can tell that Creative Scotland is one of the funders of What We Did On Our Holiday. The scenery is magnificent and the Scots accents have been made acceptable for the audiences of visual tourists.

It also features one of Scotland’s great cultural exports – Billy Connelly. He plays the role of Gordie, who is about to have his 75th birthday and one of his sons Doug (David Tennant) is taking the family form London to see the old man. Doug and his wife Abi (Rosamund Pike) are about to divorce but they put aside their differences for a few days while they journey to Scotland for the event. The children are instructed not to mention the “d” word.

Central to the film are the three children with an Enid Blyton approach to life. They are enquiring, inventive and adventurous. They inadvertently undermine their parents' attempts to not let anyone know about their problems. They expose the hypocrisy and lies of the various adults and they take serious matters into their own hands with hilarious and devastating consequences.

The oldest of the children, nine-year old Lottie (Emilia Jones) has a notebook in which she keeps a record of the lies she hears as well as her observations about life. Little Jess (Harriet Turnbull) is attached to a brick named Norman and she also sees the world through the eyes of a four year old going on forty. It is middle child Mickey (Bobby Smalldridge) and his granddad’s shared passion for Vikings which gives rise to the most far-reaching and unexpected consequences.

When a day at the beach turns to tragedy, the children take matters into their own hands. The children’s performances are outstanding in contrast to the adult actors who are mainly stereotypes, including Billy Connelly who does exactly what we would expect of him. It’s a delightful film full of astute observation about family dynamics along with sound performances and brilliant dialogue. Creative Scotland will be pleased with the outcome.