2019’s Holiday in the Wild has the feel of a standard Hallmark-y romcom but with one gigantic secret weapon - a huge budget. Turns out a wee bit of money can go a long way. For instance, you can lock in two maturing, yet age-defyingly gorgeous stars as your leads and then jet them out to beautiful, sun-kissed Zambia for an adventure…at Christmas! It really can make all the difference and Ernie Barbarash’s film is a great advertisement for the Zambian tourist board, with plenty of wonderful shots of sunny plains, elephants and stuff.
The plot is the usual hogwash but lovable stars Rob Lowe and Kristin Davis almost make you forget all that. Yes, it’s wish fulfilment twaddle at its finest but it’s also an engaging tale with a winning message about charity and animal conservation that only a total Grinch would fail to deny.
Davis plays perfectly pleasant NYC housewife Kate who, moments after her son goes off to college, learns her hubbie is divorcing her. Quite why anyone would want to divorce this incredibly agreeable woman is unclear but it provides the perfect set-up for our high concept romcom, with ex-veterinarian Kate jetting off to Africa, because why not? Cute animal adventures and romance with Lowe’s gentle Indiana Jones-esque pilot Derek ensue.
It’s formulaic stuff but stands out because the animal footage is captivating. This is definitely the first holiday film I’ve seen that features a baby elephant mourning the corpse of its dead mother. Fate sees Kate’s tour plane diverted so that Derek can help the aforementioned calf, and Kate forms a bond with the adorable little guy, as well as with Derek, the stereotypical wild bushman who’s just begging to be tamed. So, she hangs around, moving into the elephant sanctuary and joining the team there. Nobody seems to have a problem with this and happily let this total stranger live there rent-free while she rides out her midlife crisis. Because, let’s face it, elephant love overrules all.
Things skip forward to the festive season, love blossoms and so on. It’s all very silly but pleasant, proving that more beige romcoms could benefit from the inclusion of wild animals. Christmas in California would have been exponentially more awesome if it featured lions and tigers, I think you’ll agree.
This one feels like it probably started life as a non-Christmas film - a big chunk of the action actually goes down in August. My theory is that Netflix realised that holiday films are a huge draw, so tweaked the script to include a satisfying festive climax. Elephant lovers will adore it and the film, though hugely cheesy, contains just enough animal magic to elevate it to ‘actually ok’ status.
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