What We Did on Our Holiday

It is a great shame that this film is fatally undermined by the reliance on the child actors' roles. We are promised big name actors in a comic take on a 'shocking' back-from-holidays school report. Do you see it already? All the big name actors are in minor roles. The film requires the child actors to not only carry the dialogue but to demonstrate with 'adult' insight the nuances of action/behaviour that they very clearly do not possess. There are some quaint and funny lines that are quite sweet. However, this does not compensate for the basic absence of meaty substance for the more famous and adult actors to convey. Here we have a collection of mighty fine actors doing a stand up, on location read through of their lines. (There is nothing else for them to do). Meanwhile, the children model their stage clothes, speak back their lines and paddle in the sea for a bit. All in all, this story could have been told in a far more dramatic and interesting way without requiring this topsy turvy emphasis on the unskilled whilst the skilled look sadly on.

From the great cast and idea, as well as the trailer being as entertaining as it was, What We Did On Our Holiday did look really promising. And it didn't disappoint, one or two tonal shifts jar just a tad and the material for David Tennant and Rosamund Pike wasn't quite as strong as that for the children and Billy Connolly(though it wasn't at all bad either) but it's a lovely film overall that entertains and touches. What We Did On Our Holiday is well-shot, never doing too much or too little, complementing the gorgeous scenery adeptly, while the soundtrack is appropriately understated and the film's sympathetically directed, allowing the story to resonate, the script to sparkle, accommodating the actors and using the idea to its full potential. There is a perfect balance of humour and pathos in the script, the humour especially with the children is often laugh-out-loud funny and the dramatic pathos parts are genuinely poignant. The story always engages and apart from at the end slightly it never feels too predictable, there are a number of surprises and What We Did On Our Holiday has a lot to say about family life and deals with it sympathetically and warmly in a way that allows us to completely identify with the situation and the characters, who all have a great amount of likability. The performances are excellent with the interplay between the actors even stronger, the chemistry between Connolly and the children is just adorable. David Tennant and Rosamund Pike are fine though Connolly and the children make much more of an impact, mainly due to better material. Connolly is very funny and also very moving, not just the character's situation which is enough to break anybody's heart but also it felt like a personal performance with Connolly being as gifted at comedy as he is and his ailing health. The children steal the show, Harriet Turnball is just hilarious and Emilia Jones also plays her role with a lot of charm. All in all, a lovely film that promised a good deal and delivers even more. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This is, an excellent film, and certainly the best film I've been to see at the cinema in years. It's funny in places, hilarious in others. Like so much of Andy Hamilton's output, some of the comedy is subtle but it is exceedingly well constructed. The storyline is possible if not plausible, although the trailers don't really prepare you for the darker elements to the storyline. That said, my two primary school age kids loved the film and I think the 12A certification is a little excessive. The three children are fantastic and Billy Connolly excels in his role. Philosophical and smart, What We Did On Our Holiday is a shining example of great British comedy at its best.

What We Did on Our Holiday is written and directed by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin. It stars Rosamund Pike, David Tennant, Billy Connolly, Ben Miller, Amelia Bullmore, Emilia Jones, Bobby Smalldridge, Harriet Turnbull and Celia Imrie. Music is by Alex Heffes and cinematography by Martin Hawkins. "The truth is, every human being on this planet is ridiculous in their own way. So we shouldn't judge, we shouldn't fight, because in the end... in the end, none of it matters. None of the stuff" Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin spin off from their hugely popular sit-com, Outnumbered, to produce this funny, philosophical and moving picture. Tennant and Pike play parents of three young children, they are pending a divorce, but with Doug's (Tennant) father, Gordie (Connolly), dying of cancer, the family head to Scotland for what will surely be his last birthday party. Hoping to put on a united front so as to not upset Gordie any further, nobody could envisage what was to happen next... It's a film that some no doubt find easy to kick, such is the uncomplicated structure used, and the formula of messaging that drives it forward. Yet sometimes uncomplicated is all you need, and in this day and age of mega-buck blockbusters and soulless frat type comedies grasping at sex for laughs, this is a film of refreshing qualities. It's superbly performed by what is a top notch group of adult British actors, who in turn are supplemented by three child actors so natural and engaging it makes you wonder if acting school is really needed? It's obviously a piece that will resonate more with those who have been touched/stung by the thematics at work, while the comedy ticking away - with some truly great lines uttered - could seem a bit off kilter for the unprepared, but hopefully more will watch it, laugh and cry and ultimately realise that life really is too short for, well, you get the picture I'm sure. 8/10

I have submitted several reviews to this site, all accepted, but never before have I rated a film nought out of ten. K... so the concept not of reporting the death of your grandfather to you parents etc. but giving him a Viking burial, because one of the children has, however they came by them, Viking values, should not have legal consequences is improbable enough but it is also in my view perverted. The only good thing I can say about this film is that it is about the best argument for staying single and without children I have ever come across. Or at least staying away from becoming entangled with middle- class London women, even if they are as pretty as Rosamund Pike. Nuff said.

I have seen a great deal of awful movies but..this one crosses the line. I just couldn't believe how awkward the movie gets. It's not a comedy..drama, not even a family movie in my opinion. It's not because the actors were bad, because they were not..but the plot was terrible. I must admit I still kept watching the movie because I like Rosamund Pike and the views from Scotland were great..but still does not worth anyone's time. I really don't know how come the high rating but..well, that's just my opinion and maybe it's just not my type of movie. I thought it was a motivational movie, or something about finding happiness (like Hector and the Search for Happiness) but no, it's a "wanna be" movie about love and understanding.

One way of looking at this is a group of talented actors agreeing - for reasons best known to themselves - to squander their collective talents and several weeks of their time on a bland quota quickie cynically designed to appear in turn, cute, charming, picturesque then segueing to thought-provoking in mid stream. No one really puts a foot wrong and if you can accept Billy Connolly as anything other than a crude, untalented stand-up comedian totally reliant on coarse, lavatorial humour in pursuit of laughs then there's every chance you'll beguile ninety minutes or so more or less painlessly. For reasons best known to the distributor it's been released at the end of the holiday season that is its natural habitat.

It is a great shame that this film is fatally undermined by the reliance on the child actors' roles. We are promised big name actors in a comic take on a 'shocking' back-from-holidays school report. Do you see it already? All the big name actors are in minor roles. The film requires the child actors to not only carry the dialogue but to demonstrate with 'adult' insight the nuances of action/behaviour that they very clearly do not possess. There are some quaint and funny lines that are quite sweet. However, this does not compensate for the basic absence of meaty substance for the more famous and adult actors to convey. Here we have a collection of mighty fine actors doing a stand up, on location read through of their lines. (There is nothing else for them to do). Meanwhile, the children model their stage clothes, speak back their lines and paddle in the sea for a bit. All in all, this story could have been told in a far more dramatic and interesting way without requiring this topsy turvy emphasis on the unskilled whilst the skilled look sadly on.