The Holiday (2006)
Jul 15th, 2008 by hmks
PG13
Directed by Nancy Meyers
Starring Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach
Heidi’s Illustrious Rating: 2.5
Word of Warning: This is a Hollywood stroking Hollywood’s ego type of movie. It is also very, very sappy. If any of this nauseates you, avoid this movie.
We caught this movie on Encore last night. This is a typical romantic comedy where the characters have no money problems or health problems, only love problems. Kate Winslet plays Iris Simpkins, a newspaper journalist who lives just outside London. Her career is going well, but her love life is not. She is in love with a man (Rufus Sewell) who is no longer in love with her, but keeps her hoping that he may change his mind. Amanda (Cameron Diaz) is a successful movie preview creator, who owns her own L.A. based company and works eighty-hour weeks. She is dating Ethan (Edward Burns), a musician who feels ignored and unloved by her.
When the two women find themselves without a significant other to celebrate with at Christmas they decide to do a house swap for the holidays. City dweller Amanda finds herself in Iris’ cold, drafty English cottage, while Iris finds herself in Amanda’s posh, ultra hi-fi L.A. mansion.
The movie follows the two women as they meet new people and have adventures that eventually lead to (shock, shock) a new love life for the both of them. Jack Black plays Iris’ love interest, Miles, who writes musical scores for the movie industry. Jude Law is Iris’ dashing brother Graham, who becomes Amanda’s love interest in England.
It’s a contrived storyline with an obvious plot and predictable ending. One particular branch of the storyline involves an elderly screenwriter who lives in Amanda’s L.A. neighborhood. He introduces Iris to old movies. These scenes seem inconsistent with the rest of the storyline. It seems a forced introduction of a character that represents “old Hollywood” to mingling with characters who represent “new Hollywood.” It became an unnecessary stroking of Hollywood ego (something I find tiresome).
There is noticeable concentration on the musical score of this movie - to the point of ad nauseam. It was interesting and sort of amusing for a while, but became annoying by the end. If you are tired and don’t want to think much, cute Cameron and beautiful Kate make this movie worth dozing through.
[...] Read my review HERE. [...]
Predictable and contrived for sure. However, the movie had some great lines
The two best quotes from the movie,
“I understand feeling as small and as insignificant as humanly possible. And how it can actually ache in places you didn’t know you had inside you. And it doesn’t matter how many new outfits you buy, or gyms you join, or how many glasses of chardonnay you drink with your girlfriends… you still go to bed every night going over every detail and wonder what you did wrong or how you could have misunderstood. And how in the hell for that brief moment you could think that you were that happy. And sometimes you can even convince yourself that he’ll see the light and show up at your door. And after all that, however long all that may be, you’ll go somewhere new. And you’ll meet people who make you feel worthwhile again. And little pieces of your soul will finally come back. And all that fuzzy stuff, those years of your life that you wasted, that will eventually begin to fade.”
“Why do I go for the guys who aren’t any good for me? Because I’m hoping I’m wrong about them. And every time a guy does something that tells me he’s no good, I ignore it. When he hurts me – I almost expect it. And every time he comes through and surprises me, he wins me over! And I lose that argument with myself… that he’s no good for me. He is a hero in my eyes for a brief moment. And I hold onto that moment and pop it into the back of my mind, because surely he will hurt or disappoint me again.”