Holiday In The Wild | Film Review

Hey Guys x

This film came out on Netflix yesterday and I thought I'd give it a watch because why not. It seemed easy to follow, cute, and possibly romantic - what's not to be halfway invested in?

Kate (Kristen Davis) is a woman who finds herself in Africa after her husband unexpectedly leaves her right before the second honeymoon that she planned as a surprise for him. But soon Kate finds that maybe Africa (and pilot Derek (Rob Lowe)) will be the best thing that ever happened to her.

There's no other phrase for it, this film is exactly as advertised, and you can't fault it for that. It sets itself up as a soft, cute, cheesy, completely random rom-com and that's exactly what you get.

This review will have mild spoilers because that's the only way I can talk about most of it, but it's predictable enough that no spoilers really matter.

For a start, the film really throws every possible plot point in your face as soon as it can. By this I mean that, Kate has literally seen her son off to college, been broken up with by her husband (of something like 20 years), gone to Africa, and met her new love interest in the first 9 minutes of the film. Seriously.
It's like the director was like, 'we know what the audience really want to see, so let's get on with it', and as laughable as it is, it's not wrong, is it?

Having said that, there is definite chemistry between the two protagonists. And I really liked the fact that this rom-com was about an older couple, rather than two people in their 20s discovering love for the first time. Not that I don't love that, but I liked this angle too.

Every rom-com/drama that begins with someone temporarily leaving home makes the main conflict/drama about when that character will go home, and how their romantic interest will deal with them leaving, and while this has another equally as half-hearted conflict, it still deals with the issue of her not knowing when to go home. The drama is unnecessary.
Speaking of someone temporarily leaving home, do these people have no responsibilities? It just doesn't seem feasible that she (or anyone) could even think about extending her two week holiday by over a month with no consequences.

And crazily enough, I haven't spoken about the elephants yet, which are actually the main characters in this film. Because they're the main reason that Kate falls in love with Africa. In fact, every scene of the film that isn't an attempt at romance is a bit like that ITV Drama 'Wild At Heart' (which is still one of my favourite shows). But it's definitely not your usual romance movie... even though there's a really tiny attempt to try and make it pass for a Christmas movie, which didn't work at all.

And the ending, as you'd expect, is cliche and predictable. I mean, as a rom-com fan, I loved that it ended in the predictable way, but there was really nothing new there.

Then there's the last thing, and the first thing about the film that actually annoyed me. It ends with a statistic about elephants and a ask of 'support' with no actual information about how we as the audience could support the cause that they want us to. Not even a link to more information.

Overall, you'll lose nothing by not seeing this, but if it seems like your kind of thing, give it a watch and see what you think.

5/10

Lou