#WhatWeDidOnOurHoliday #EnglishHollywoodFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas #Rating: * * *
#WhatWeDidOnOurHoliday #EnglishHollywoodFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas #Rating: * * *
#PicksAndPiquesSnippetFilmReview5thJune2015 #JohnsonThomas
#PicksAndPiquesSnippetFilmReview5thJune2015
#JohnsonThomas
#DilDhadakneDo(Hindi) Rating: * *1/2 A ship-board family drama that doesn’t pick up steam or allow for emotive attachment. The 2 hr 50 min runtime is a weight that pulls it down further disallowing any chance of swimming with the tide. Performances are quite good and the writing has it’s sublime moments but the high society characterizations don’t ring true, Aamir’s ‘Pluto’ avatar as narrator is tedious and the contrived ending doesn’t fit in with realistic tenets. #ZoyaAkhtar #ReemaKagti #ExcelEntertainment #FarhanAkhtar #RanveerKapoor #AnushkaSharma #AnilKapoor #ShefaliShah #SpicePR #JungleeMovies #AjayBijli #AamirKhan
#LateefTheUnfoldStory(Hindi) Rating: No Show. This one crawled out of the wood work, has #NawazuddinSiddiqui (in his lean phase), in the lead and is pretty much fated to tank given the low-brow marketing campaign and unremarkable treatment
#KaakkaMuttai(Tamil/EnglishSubtitles)) Rating:* * * ½ Highly endearing and heart-warming. This celebrated Tamil film with English subtitles, superb award winning performances from the two young leads and gritty realistic direction from cinematographer turned director MManikandan, draws you in with it’s aspirational, heart touching story and robust vivacity. #RameshThilaganathan #JVignesh #MManikandan #Dhanush #FoxStarStudios #Wunderbar
#WhatWeDidOnOurHoliday(English) Rating: * * * Would have got an additional half-star if the censors had not mutilated the dialogues with incessant beeps. Nevertheless, this is a quirky British comedy set in beauteous Scotland, with some really ingenious kid players powering it’s amiability and far-out ideology. SGNMediaworks #PrakashKhetpal #GrasshopperEvents&Communications #RosamundPike #DavidTenant #BillyConolly #AndyHamilton #GuyJenkin #PVRDirectorsRare #BBCFilms
#TheAgeOfAdaline(English) Rating: * * * ½ A superbly plotted timeless romance that draws you in with conviction and grit in spite of it’s confounding preposterous premise. The implausible becomes plausible here and that’s why it’s a winner. #Pictureworks #PVRPictures #BlakeLively #HarrisonFord #MichielHuisman #EllenBurstyn #AmandaCrew #KathyBaker #LeeTolandKrieger
#BestFilmsReleasedthisWeek5thJune 2015 #JohnsonThomas
#BestFilmsReleasedthisWeek5thJune2015 #JohnsonThomas
#TheAgeOfAdaline(English) Rating: * * * ½ A superbly plotted timeless romance that draws you in with conviction and grit in spite of it’s confounding preposterous premise. The implausible becomes plausible here and that’s why it’s a winner. #Pictureworks #PVRPictures #BlakeLively #HarrisonFord #MichielHuisman #EllenBurstyn #AmandaCrew #KathyBaker #LeeTolandKrieger
#KaakkaMuttai(Tamil/EnglishSubtitles)) Rating:* * * ½ Highly endearing and heart-warming. This celebrated Tamil film with English subtitles, superb award winning performances from the two young leads and gritty realistic direction from cinematographer turned director MManikandan, draws you in with it’s aspirational, heart touching story and robust vivacity. #RameshThilaganathan #JVignesh #MManikandan #Dhanush #FoxStarStudios #Wunderbar
#WhatWeDidOnOurHoliday(English) Rating: * * * Would have got an additional half-star if the censors had not mutilated the dialogues with incessant beeps. Nevertheless, this is a quirky British comedy set in beauteous Scotland, with some really ingenious kid players powering it’s amiability and far-out ideology. SGNMediaworks #PrakashKhetpal #GrasshopperEvents&Communications #RosamundPike #DavidTenant #BillyConolly #AndyHamilton #GuyJenkin #PVRDirectorsRare
English Film review
Johnson Thomas
Delightful but far-fetched
Film: What We Did on our Holiday
Cast: Rosamund Pike, David Tenant, Billy Connolly,
Director: Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkin
Rating: * * *
Runtime: 90 mins
Warning: This exhibition copy for the Indian screens was mutilated beyond recognition by a moralistic censor board that has managed to beep out every interesting conversation between the children and adults. Better to watch this on DVD.
Synopsis: Doug (David Tennant) and Abi (Rosamund Pike) and their three children travel to the Scottish Highlands for Doug's father Gordie's (Billy Connolly) birthday party. Doug and Abi are having serious problems in their marriage and are all set to separate but they don’t want their problems to overshadow the celebration they have agreed to come together for. Unfortunately their children are just not capable of keeping mum.
Review
This film is basically a smallscreen to big screen transference with the writing-directing team of the hit Brit TV series ‘Outnumbered,’ - Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton reprising the same successful formula-of-sorts, in which he has three precocious kids give their parents and adults around them a run for their money at being adult. Lottie (Emilia Jones), Mickey (Bobby Smalldridge) and Jess (Harriet Turnbull) are equal partners in the happy family charade that their parents put up but their innocence and ‘know-it-all’ naiveté don’t allow for secrets to be bundled up for long. Cancer stricken Grandpa Gordie(Billy Connolly)’s 75th and possibly final birthday celebration in his Scottish Highlands home is when all the secrets come tumbling out of the wood work. But it doesn’t stop there. A rivalry flares between Doug and his wealthy brother, Gavin (Ben Miller), a conceited social climber and financial trader who has a large Scottish mansion also has a wife who is the high-strung Margaret (Amelia Bullmore), with a history of secret breakdowns-the most recent of which happened in the local supermarket, caught by the store’s CCTV cameras, and has become a YouTube treat.
The final arc goes one beyond allowing the kids to take on the onus of giving their beloved grandfather’s life a befitting finale- one that seems a trifle too far-fetched and unbelievable. This bold move to takes the film out of the cozy-family viewing scenario and plants it way off left field, raising issues of criminality, morality and parenting that can never be resolved as easily as the pic tries to do it. Martin Hawkins lensing of the Scottish coast looks splendid but the stuff that happens indoors is not as well lit or interestingly composed. The storyline lacks plausibility and therefore credibility. The adults are there just to fill up the corners-it’s mainly the kids who have a fun outing and make it look fairly delightful thereof!
Johnson Thomas
Comments
Post a Comment