Holiday In The Wild Synopsis: Jilted by her husband on the eve of embarking on an African safari, a woman travels to the continent alone where she meets an elephant conservationist.
Kate (Kristin Davis), is just about to send her son off to college, leaving her and her husband empty nesters. To rekindle the magic in their marriage, she books them a second honeymoon to Africa. Unfortunately, her husband has decided he is no longer in love with her and moves out of their home.
His bags are already packed on the day Kate’s son leaves for college. They are quite literally in the hallway, and she doesn’t notice them until he picks them up to walk out. Her husband waits about two minutes after their son is gone to end the marriage. It’s pretty impressive.
Kate decides to take the African trip anyway, and in Zambia, she meets Derek (Rob Lowe), a pilot and widower who also volunteers at an elephant sanctuary. Kate quickly becomes attached to the elephants, and she and Derek begin to bond over the animals. When the time comes for Kate to return to New York, she opts to stay for a while longer. And “a while longer” turns out to be three months. Because Kate’s trip takes place in September and given that “Holiday” is in the title, they’ve got to throw Christmas in here somewhere.
As seems to be the case lately with Netflix rom-coms, Holiday in the Wild feels like it would have felt right at home on Hallmark. The scenery is beautiful, and I have to be honest, the elephants are the stars here.
In terms of romance, Davis and Lowe have the kind of chemistry that felt much more platonic to me than anything else. There is also very little conflict here other than Kate’s life back in New York, which she will inevitably return to. I suppose there is a snooty blonde named Leslie (Hayley Owen) who comes around every now and then to give dirty looks to Kate when she’s around Derek, but the woman is bland and under-developed, and I have no idea what her role was supposed to be other than a foil for Kate. Leslie and Derek’s relationship is never fully explained, though it’s implied they have a casual sleeping arrangement when she’s “in town”.
Holiday in the Wild has a quick montage in the last twenty minutes of Kate hitting up all of her rich New York friends and her ex-husband for money to help the conservation that is suddenly in trouble of not having the funding needed to keep going. They take out their checkbooks, saving the sanctuary for at least another year. It’s a nice, tidy wrap-up, and yes, I can understand how this might come across as “a white woman saves the day again” because that’s sort of how it felt.
Holiday in the Wild also has an insanely thin plot, no real heat between the leads, and some cringe dialogue – “I just want to know, in Africa, did you meet someone?” “Yes, I did. I met me.” – Oof. But if you love animals, you can turn this on and just skip to those parts, I guess. I truly do appreciate Davis’s support of elephant conservation, and her love for these animals is very clear in the movie. If nothing else, this movie may bring more attention to elephant sanctuaries and the diminishing elephant population. In that case, it gets a thumbs up from me.
Watched: 11/19/2019
Notable Song: Silent Night by Ladysmith Black Mambazo
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