Dir. Barry Sonnenfeld, US, 2006, 99 mins
Cast: Robin Williams, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Chenweth
Review by Carol Allen
First, a few translation notes. Despite the helpful addition of the
explanation "Runaway Vacation" for non-American audiences, RV actually
stands for Recreational Vehicle. A cross between a film star's
trailer, a four-wheel drive "mum truck" and a tank, it's the all-mod-cons
American equivalent of a camper van. And an RV holiday is what
workaholic businessman Bob (Williams) foists on his reluctant family
instead of the luxury vacation in Hawaii he has promised them. The reason –
he has a plan to use the holiday to get to an important business
meeting without his family realising.
The film describes itself as a family-adventure comedy. Well, yes, it
does feature the aforesaid family, who are a right group of whingers,
played by Hines as mum and Joanna "Jo-Jo" Levesque and Josh Hutcherson
as the teenage kids. Adventure? Not really. More a series of
predictable disasters, many of which involve scatological and very
physical episodes concerned with the contents of the RV's toilet.
Comedy? There are a few good gags, but in many ways it's sad, in both
the traditional and vernacular senses, pointing up as it does the
isolation and lack of communication in the contemporary American family
without any real wit or perception. Williams falls back largely on
mugging rather than acting, though some bright moments are provided by
Daniels and Broadway diva Chenweth ("Wicked") as a pair of ghastly but
helpful, happy and enthusiastic rovers, who turn out to have more to them
than meets the eye.
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