Vacation - Worth the Ride

Year: 2015

Make no mistake about it, this is not your parents Vacation. From the opening montage sequence of awkward family photos, to the first f-bomb (less than ten minutes in from a character less than ten years old), this film makes it’s case: family “fun”, wrapped in good intention, is often weird, painful and, eventually, hysterical. Our ability to relate to the family road trip is what the Griswolds are all about. They are slightly underdog, profane and uncomfortable in almost every situation because of their simple desires to connect.

I think it’s important to tip my cap to John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein, who are listed as co-Directors and co-writers on this film. Simply put: they get it. For as low-brow as the humor is, the comedic beats and attention to detail are very sharp. The actors, too, from top to bottom, all commit to their points of view and see them through to great effect. It may seem bizarre to be charmed by humor that starts or ends in the toilet, but with great energy, unblinking drive and enough of a nod to the original classic, Vacation 2015 worked from tip to tail for me.

The story is simple: Rusty Griswold is a middle-aged man, living in middle America in a mid-level job for a low level airline. He is disrespected and embarrassed out of the box in several ways, bringing us down beneath our level and making it impossible not to cheer for him. When the disrespect follows him home, from his angst-ridden geeky teenage boy to his foul-mouthed pre-teen bully, to the level of finding out that his yearly vacation plans to the lake are boring at best and his wife may be checking out of their marriage, he decides to shake things up with a blast from the past: Wally World.

Rusty’s rented puke blue Albanian minivan from hell is a delightful character unto itself, with all the charm of the metallic pea green family truckster station wagon Clark Griswold shoved the past generation into back in the mid-80’s. There are loads of fun cameos from the likes of  

Ron Livingston, Leslie Mann, Norman Reedus, Keegan-Michael Key, Chris Hemsworth (and his prosthetic – that better have been a prosthetic) and of course, Beverly D’Angel and Chevy Chase.

As long as you’re prepared to go low, buckle your seat belt because this is one bumpy ride that won’t leave you short on laughs.  

Resonance Rating: 4 out of 5