Director: Nancy Meyers
Writer: Nancy Meyers (Screenplay)
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach, Edward Burns, Rufus Sewell
Plot: Two women troubled with guy-problems swap homes in each other’s countries, where they each meet a local guy and fall in love.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Feel Good Christmas Film
Story: The Holiday starts as we see Iris (Winslet) a wedding columnist who is madly in love with a co-worker Jasper (Sewell) but discovers he is now engaged to a fellow co-worker destroying what she wanted in life. We move to LA where we meet Amanda (Diaz) who finds out her boyfriend has been cheating on her.
Both women want to spend Christmas away from home and the stresses of their lives find themselves swapping homes for a couple of weeks. Both women find themselves like a fish out of water, with Amanda befriending Iris’ brother Graham (Law), while Iris meets composer Miles (Black) and her 90-year old neighbor Arthur (Wallach) who is just as lonely as she finds herself.
With the story unfolding the two women get to learn a new way of life they could never imagine and find themselves learning they could one day love again.
Thoughts on The Holiday
Characters/Performance – Amanda is a movie trailer cutter who breaks up with her boyfriend and goes searching for a getaway from her life, she finds herself in England meeting Graham who shows her a new way of life. Iris is an English woman that has found herself trapped hoping that one day she will end up with one co-worker. She agrees to go on the house swap to LA where she meets a man whose getting older and feels forgotten by his work as well as a man in Miles who is going through the same problems is. Graham is a single father trying to balance any sort of relationship with a career and raising his children. Miles is a music composer for movies that offers friendship for Iris but connection on the levels,
Performance Wise, Diaz shows once again she is great for romantic comedies, with Winslet showing here that she can handle comedy, Law shows he is always good for this type of role and Jack Black steps up to go toe to toe with true A-listers.
Story – The story is about love, how we these women go through a bad patch but will find a way to be stronger once they come through it. While it is all very much created to say there will always be a quick fix after a break up, we do get to experience the joy they go through. By the end of the film you will have said you enjoyed the journey we go through.
Comedy/Romance – The comedy isn’t too heavy but comes off when it needs to, with the romance side of the story tackling break ups, letting people go and most of all taking a chance on someone new.
Settings – The settings are used well to show the different worlds both Amanda and Iris have come from and how they get used to the new lives they are living for two weeks.
Final Thoughts – This is a great Christmas film that gives us all hope when it comes to love even when we think we might have lost it all when it comes to hope.
Overall: Enjoyable Christmas film for all to enjoy.
Rating
