Mini Review: What we did on our holiday

I had to get to this one eventually. Comedy is not something I tend to cover very often. You can’t really make jokes about a good comedy without just repeating the jokes the movie makes, conversely there are only so many times you can say…

Regarding a bad comedy. But there are times where a line is crossed. Sometimes you can make great jokes out of it. Shows like the Simpsons and Family Guy use this tactic with mixed success (I never want to see clips of herpes ever again, Family guy) here, there are some serious issues being tackled as well. Cancer, family rows, divorce proceedings, the death of a loved one and others, but I’m sad to say it doesn’t work very well here.

What we did on our holiday was released in 2014 in the UK and 2015 in the US and made a modest return on its £3.5m budget. It was produced by the BBC and features some great British talent including former Doctor and crazed mind-controlling psychopath David Tennant; Rosamund Pike, who was nominated for an Academy Award in her next movie, Gone Girl; Ben Miller, who in the same year starred in my least favourite Doctor Who episode of that year (Robot of Sherwood), and one of Scotland’s comedic icons Billy Connolly.

Can this drama/comedy work, let’s take a closer look.

We’re introduced to estranged couple Doug and Abi McLoed (David Tennant and Rosamund Pike) and their 3 children: Jess (Harriet Turnbull) who carries rocks for company and has a tendency to hold her breath until she passes out, Mickey (Bobby Smalldridge) who’s obsessed with Norse mythology and Lottie (Amelia Jones) who keeps a notebook about the goings on in her life.

They’re heading to Scotland to see Doug’s father Gordie (Billy Connolly) for his 75^th birthday. His battle with cancer has taken its toll and it’s likely to be his last birthday. Not wanting to upset him, they want to pretend that they’re in a happy marriage and have asked the kids not to mention it. Hijinks to follow.

It’s a decent setup for a comedy, there are opportunities for a lot of good jokes here and we get a few good ones with some awkward moments, the asshole brother (Ben Miller) setting up a party the Queen would be jealous of, Geordie trying to be light-hearted around his death and not wishing for so much fuss, standard stuff but at the end of the second act, we get a twist. Geordie dies, and unfortunately, with him, so does much of the film’s comedy.

The kids decide to rebel against arguments by denying them a chance to say goodbye to their beloved father (or father in law) by burning his body and sending it out to sea. And I know how they set it up in this but it is one of the cruellest things you can do to someone who’s lost someone. I know they’re young, but youth doesn’t excuse everything. They’ve experienced death before, there was a joke about their next door neighbour dying.

What follows this scene of some satire of the mass media, the concept of Doug and Abi losing their children (not the worst outcome from my perspective), more satire of the mass media. A revelation of a secret held by Gavin’s (Ben Miller) wife, Margaret having an incident in a Supermarket following a bout of depression (I wonder if that was supposed to funny, it was kinda hard to tell), Bobby thinking he’s seen Odin, more arguing and the thing which breaks the movie for me.

You see Lottie stands up in front of them and berates them for arguing all the time. I’m sorry but NO! YOU DO NOT GET TO TAKE THE MORAL HIGH GROUND IN THIS SITUATION. You three used the excuse of ‘it’s what he would’ve wanted’ to be selfish assholes and rob your family of the chance of mourning him properly, something that could be psychologically scarring, particularly to people close to him. Even if they didn’t understand that what they were doing was wrong, THEY DON’T GET TO TAKE THE MORAL HIGH GROUND HERE!

And to top it off, Mickey goes outside to try and address the press. Now there are laws about kids being on television without the parents’ approval in the UK, the feed would’ve been cut there and then. Doug goes out and begins to answer the journalists, leading one to ask if they believe he failed as a parent. Not entirely sure how to answer this, Abi backs him up and in the aftermath they agree to back off with their lawyers, with Abi agreeing to turn down a potential job so as not to have to move to Newcastle and keep Doug away from the kids, the investigator implies she’s going to take no further action against them either.

This unconventionally happy ending is one of my problems. I’m glad they didn’t bring the two back together but this is almost as bad as one scene really isn’t enough for their actions to be believable like this. The fact that the investigation is dropped so suddenly is also head-scratching.

Adding to that, there is one character who I’ve not mentioned so far. Kenneth McLoed, violinist and son of Gavin and Margaret. He is really extraneous to proceedings and he’s also the butt of one of the worst jokes in the movie as his father calls him a spastic leading him to charge down Jess (uncovering the stolen house keys in a subplot that doesn’t go anywhere)

His other contribution to the plot is falling in love with one of the performers hired for the party. This subplot begins right after news broke of Geordie’s death, and the joke is he missed all the drama. This joke might’ve worked if this subplot had been moved forward before Geordie’s death but here it rubs me off the wrong way as it gives the sense that he just doesn’t give a sh*t. Funnily enough he does have a scene with Geordie, who encourages him to let loose with his violin (he’s a much better player when he lets loose than doing performance pieces, go figure) so his nonchalant attitude isn’t interesting to watch.

Which is a pity because there were ways for him to work in this plot, even if I think it was the wrong move anyway. He could’ve been more the liaison between the kids and the adults. Young enough to understand the concerns of the kids, but old enough to sympathise with the adults. You don’t need to drop these quirks for this to work. Just that football scene (lord knows, we could’ve done without that anyway)

So, moral aggrandising by people who did something morally abhorrent, being too blasé about their media satire (it pays to do basic research) and an overly rushed conclusion mean this comedy leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen, it’s aesthetically brilliant and there are some good jokes in the first half but it’s not something I can recommend.

Rating 35/100

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Images/clips used in this review are from What we did on our holiday and Robot Chicken and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use