*This review contains spoilers*
Drop the Dead Donkey and Outnumbered collaborators Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton write and direct this amusing family comedy.
Bickering couple Abi (Rosamund Pike) and Doug (David Tenant) are on their way to Scotland for Doug’s terminally ill father’s birthday with their three kids. Youngest Jess (Harriet Turnbull) wants to bring her friend bricks Eric and Norman, Viking-obsessed Mikey (Bobby Smalldridge) hopes to meet his hero Odin, and eldest Lottie (Emilia Jones) brings her notebook so she can keep up with the web of lies her parents spin. You see, Abi and Doug are in fact separated and working towards divorce, but have kept it thus far from Doug’s family. The simple aim is to keep up appearances long enough to survive the trip.
Easier said than done when the dysfunctional extended family includes Doug’s money-mad brother Gavin (Ben Miller) who insists on showing off his “intelligent house” at every opportunity, sister-in-law Margaret (Amelia Bullmore) who dutifully cooks and cleans whilst harbouring her own secrets, and violinist teenage nephew Kenneth (Lewis Davie) who doesn’t think twice about slide tackling three-year-old Jess during a family game of football.
At the head of this dynasty sits Gordie, beautifully played by a thoroughly charming Billy Connolly. Gordie is the complete antithesis of his two sons, laid back to the point of horizontality. He’d much rather spend his birthday at the beach with his grandchildren than prepare for the overblown party organised with military precision by Gavin.
It is in the film’s more intimate moments between grandfather and grandchildren when the film soars highest; Gordie imparting refreshingly unfiltered wisdom on the children who are all already wise beyond their years. When Gordie tells the kids that he’d rather have a Viking funeral than a boring family affair where the inevitable fights would sour the mood just before popping his clogs the kids take it quite literally and see to it that his final wish is respected. Amusement ensues back at the house once the family learns of the impromptu send-off. Gavin is incredulous at the fact that he’s been hung up on by 999, while Abi struggles to get the facts from Jess as she focuses on how many pebbles she found and then subsequently lost.
Predictably, from here the film becomes a sweet, if slight, examination of how great tragedy has the power to reconnect once disparate threads of a family. The players are all endearing enough (even if Ben Miller’s Scottish accent leaves a little to be desired).
The film’s greatest weakness are its visuals. The highland scenery is utterly breathtaking, but the film in general is so televisual in style and execution it looks and feels like a BBC comedy drama rather than a movie. Jenkin and Hamilton’s direction is disappointingly flat, especially given the quality of the screenplay. The family interplay is the film’s greatest strength, and it is these scenes which will live longest in the memory.
Why Mr. Pink? 