Review: What we Did On Our Holiday (12)
The world premiere of David Tennant and Billy Connolly’s new movie takes place tonight (Monday) in London with the usual razzamatazz of celebs on the red carpet - but Fifers have already seen it.
The real premiere - i.e. the very, very first screening - came at Kirkcaldy Film Festival at the Adam Smith Theatre on Sunday.
And we had our own red carpet ...
And it played to a packed theatre.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdOh, and everyone absolutely loved it and gave it a thundering ovation as the credits rolled
So the film’s backers can rest easy. Fifers have seen it and given a massive thumbs-up!
The movie is the big screen debut of Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, the men behind the hugely successful, partially improvised BBC sitcom ‘Outnumbered’ - and they’ve stuck with that brilliant format for this lovely, laugh out loud, funny and touching story.
Tennant and Rosamund Pike play a couple in the middle of a nippy divorce trying to play the happy family card one last time as they take their three kids north to celebrate their dying grandfather’s 75th, and probably final, birthday
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdA family gathering awaits, but the combination of kids and secrets... well, you can guess what happens.
What you won’t anticipate is how, once safely ensconced in the middle of nowhere in northern Scotland, this film then veers off at a tangent that is engaging and moving as it is slightly daft and wonderfully entertaining. I won’t spoil it by saying any more ...
Tennant and Connolly - the latter in reflective and impish mode, often at the same time as he faces up to dying - may have their names in lights, but the real stars are the kids; Emilia Jones, Bobby Smallbridge and Hariet Turnbull bring a delightful charm to their scenes, and also become absolutely rounded wee characters amid all the off-the-cuff humour which lead to assorted family secrets and lies tumbling out of the locked closet.
There were times we missed some of the lines as the audience laughed so long and loud - not once, but over and over again.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHamilton and Jenkin may have stuck with the format of ’Outnumbered’ but in stepping on to the big screen they have also raised the bar considerably.
Quite simply, this is a gem of a movie
Go see it - and enjoy.