What We Did On Our Holiday is deceptively deep. It looks, for all money, like a light comedy about dreaded family gatherings. Soon-to-be-divorced couple Doug (David Tennant) and Abi (Rosamund Pike) pile in their three children – Mickey (Bobby Smalldridge), Jess (Harriet Turnbull) and Lottie (Emilia Jones) – for a road trip to the Scottish Highlands to celebrate the 75th birthday of Doug’s father, Gordie (Billy Connolly). But Gordie’s failing health provides a swift injection of drama. He is slowly dying of cancer and probably won’t live to see another birthday, and so he takes this opportunity to bond with his precocious grandchildren. Hijinks come in spades, but Pike and Tennant take a backseat to the performances of their younger counterparts.
Writer-directors Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin commit themselves wholeheartedly to creating a refreshingly realistic family portrait. Doug and Abi have recently separated but are trying their best to remain civil with each other and reassure their kids that everything will be fine. They do not, however, want to heap their problems on top of Gordie’s, so they coach the kids on how to field potential questions from Scottish relatives. “If anyone asks, Mommy and Daddy don’t live in separate houses.” Naturally, the kids wonder why anyone would even ask the question. The well-meaning lies are too much for Lottie, who keeps a journal of all the white lies she may be required to tell.
Once in the highlands, Doug and his uptight brother, Gavin (Ben Miller), square off while Gordie takes the kids out to his favorite beach. Gordie serves as the proverbial fount of wisdom, here. Connolly and Jones, in particular, have terrific chemistry and share a wonderful moment as Gordie explains that it just isn’t worth the time and effort to begrudge people who they are. Taking his grandchildren under his wing, he encourages their curiosity, their quirks and their budding understanding of grown-up faults (i.e., secrets and petty fighting). He doesn’t bat an eye at Jess’s penchant for collecting “pet rocks” and even shares in Mickey’s Viking obsession, admitting that he would like to have a Viking funeral, if only to prevent Doug and Gavin bickering over what to do with his body. So, when Gordie dies on the beach, his grandchildren give him the funeral he truly wanted and float him out to sea doused in petroleum and covered in flames.
Hamilton and Jenkin’s experience in sitcoms becomes most evident in the aftermath of this impromptu Viking funeral. The children explain to their astonished relatives what they did and why (including the fact that Lottie chose not to tell the adults after seeing them all arguing, just like Gordie said). Cue a media firestorm as Doug and Abi’s parenting is called into question and their kids repeatedly called heathens. This latter half of the film consists of one frivolous set-piece after another. YouTube meltdowns and Social Services interviews drag on and threaten to send us right into a feel-good finale where all is forgiven and a future is promised wherein everything will come up roses. Thankfully, Hamilton and Jenkin devise a much more deftly controlled finale to follow this slapdash middle. Gordie’s wisdom does win out at the end of the day but without the old cliché of having one of the young’uns deliver some sobering truths to the parents over poignant orchestration.
What the film captures best is the crossover between the young trio’s imagination and their black and white view of the world. To them, a Viking funeral is infinitely cool, like dragons and knights, but it is also exactly what their grandfather asked for and a rational solution to the tensions surrounding a traditional funeral. The fact that What We Did On Our Holiday turns on this very moment is the film’s saving grace. It is a complex, honest and ridiculous moment of childhood truth that enriches an otherwise rote family dramedy.