Going Dysfunctional in Scotland
Abi (Rosamund Pike) and Doug (David Tennant) are going through a bitter divorce and living in separate houses, trouble is that they haven't told any of Doug's family and as the whole family are heading up to Scotland for his father, Gordie's (Billy Connolly), birthday they and their three children are going to have to keep up the pretence. But between Abi and Doug struggling to stay civil and his brother bossing everyone around it isn't the happiest of times. That is before Gordie decides to take his grand children down to the beach for the day and what follows throws everything up in the air.
Whilst I could issue a spoiler alert and tell you what happens in "What We Did on Our Holiday" I feel this is a movie which you need to experience yourself. But it does mean that I can only really tell you about one half of the movie and that is the half where we have the adults constantly arguing be it Abi and Doug or Doug and his brother with the children having to put up with the grown ups acting more like children than they do. That is with an exception because we have Gordie who has that knowing side to him and a touch of mischief which means he looks on at all the arguing but stays out of it because he realises none of it matters.
The trouble is that telling you just this one side of "What We Did on Our Holiday" doesn't actually make it sound like much but trust me it ends up an amusing and surprising experience although one which is frankly beyond far fetched. A lot of that entertainment comes from the mix of old age with both Billy Connolly and Annette Crosbie playing senior characters who don't care what others think and the innocence of youth who in their own simplistic views have their own wisdom.
What this all boils down to is that "What We Did on Our Holiday" is an unusual movie which the less you know the more entertaining it is likely to become. But it is a strange movie and one which is slightly poignant when you learn that Billy Connolly was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and early prostate cancer just before filming and kept it a secret despite playing a grandfather with cancer in it.
