What I Did on My Holiday (2014)

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.