Holiday in the Wild

Holiday in the Wild (2019)
Director: Ernie Barbarash
Actors: Kristin Davis, Rob Lowe, John Owen Lowe

Synopsis: Bourgeois fiftysomething, Kate (Kristin Davis), is unceremoniously dumped by her husband, so embarks on a vacation that will transform her life when she travels to Zambia alone.

Review: Critiquing such a lowly aspirational piece of storytelling seems churlish, until you realise that this is a mildly patronising film too, so it deserves some level of take-down. As an exercise in plot construction it is thoroughly slapdash, and the time continuity and character motivations are baffling to say the least.

The opening scene is a classic case in point. Within seconds of being introduced to the affluent couple of Kate and Drew, and their soon-to-go-to-college son Luke, we have Drew arbitrarily end their 20 years of marriage in a paltry monologue, and Kate is left flapping around unsure of what to do about the ‘second honeymoon’ in Africa she had planned for them. Kristin Davis, a capable sitcom actress but of limited dramatic range, doesn’t have the acting chops to deal with such a poor hand from the scenario, and this shoddiness of dramatic progression becomes a recurring feature of the film.

There is no sense of tension or conflict, and that which is randomly jettisoned in – Derek’s thinly-sketched ‘evil’ girlfriend and the late development regarding the precarious funding for the elephant sanctuary – is resolved without much toil.

Yes, there is a touching caption at the end about the stark reality of elephant numbers in the wild, but the film’s simplification of its African canvas as a colourful, ‘othered’ backdrop to provide moments of epiphany and character-fortifying benevolence for its array of dull as ditchwater white characters (Davis’ Kate even has to sell her jewels and her unimaginably luxurious Manhattan penthouse at one point – sob, sob) is almost beyond satire. (May 2020)