An ensemble
movie of five adults and three children set in beautiful Scottish scenery. All
the better to explore the dysfunctional relationship between adults and adults
and children with stones.
The story is
very simple, how to mask the impending divorce of a young couple from the man’s
father who is about to celebrate his big birthday.
The warring
divorcees to be, played by David Tennant and Rosamund Pike are travelling to
Scotland’s western highlands with their three children to celebrate said
father’s/grandfather’s birthday. We discover that this middle class family are
no more dysfunctional than any other family – just more creatively funnier.
Getting to Scotland is just for openers – the real fun starts when they arrive.
The London
family are staying with Tennant’s brother, a successfully wealthy money maker
and his very depressed wife who demonstrates her clinical illness to extremely
funny effect, on video, courtesy of the playfulness of our three children.
Grandfather
is the cornerstone for the humour in the film, sharing his eccentricity and
senior rights with the children. Offering sound advice to go off piste in their lives, particularly
the older daughter who is struggling to make sense of life around her by making
notes in a notebook. The contents of this help to piece together the disputes
tha6 are going on around her.
Grandfather
is played by Billy Connolly who in real life has recently announced that he has
cancer and also Parkinson’s. This makes his character and role in this film
poignant.
The fantasies
of the children and the dreams of the Grandfather become as one in the story
which will leave most viewers with a tear in their eye. The scenes on the beach
with the children and Grandfather while preparations are being made for the
party at home are touching and delightful. Whilst the adults are running around
totally unaware of how the birthday party will unravel.
The authors
of the screenplay also wrote Outnumbered for television and yes, many reviews
have suggested that this might be Outnumbered:the Movie. What separates them is
the concept of a family of five struggling to live, learn and work together
with the children improvising a lot of their scenes and dialogue – and a family
of five where the parents are preparing to divorce and the children are trying
to learn how to navigate round this and grow up.
There are
moments of improvisation which are not seamless and a little awkward for the
older adults. But the children still dominate this warm hearted, funny and
entertaining film to great effect.