The Holiday, It's Surprisingly Good! (The Holiday (DVD))

Member Name: venice105

Product:	The Holiday (DVD)
Date:	11/01/07 (283 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Highly enjoyable "rom-com"

Disadvantages: hmm..can't think of any!

I went to see the romantic comedy The Holiday with fairly low expectations as the genre is very hit or miss for me. Whenever I see a trailer for a new "rom-com" as they are sometimes called nowadays, my heart does a simultaneous leap and lurch movement. I love many films that have made this Hollywood genre become such a staple in recent years. But for every Sleepless in Seattle or Bridget Jones' Diary, there is some wishy-washy yawn fest with Goldie Hawn's daughter or god forbid, Jennifer Lopez. I get really annoyed by how lazily bad some of these films are.

So when I first saw a trailer for this it did seem terribly contrived and uninspired. Jude Law, more recently known for his nanny bonking than his acting, is not particularly high on my list of appealing leading men. Cameron Diaz is fine in everything but not really remarkable aside from still being beautiful with a very wonky nose. Jack Black? Erm, ok as a crazy, mildly amusing comic actor, but not much else. And Kate Winslet? What's she doing involved in this nonsense, can't they photo shop her into a corset anymore?

O.k. enough cattiness. As is obvious I'm finicky with regards to the manner in which my heartstrings are tugged and my funny bone simultaneously tingled. Meg Ryan, yes, Julia Roberts, no thanks. And so I ventured into this film on a mother daughter attempt to avoid Christmas shopping madness with some trepidation.

The film is set up with the two parallel female leads, Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz. Kate plays Iris, a newspaper writer in London. She is shown writing the marriage announcements for the paper so we do immediately get the "Oh sad singleton" vibe. Add to that it is the office Christmas party and she is moping around as we learn in voice over (both female characters have voiceovers, which is used well I thought), that she has been in a fruitless love entanglement with the office cad (Rufus Sewell) and can't pry herself out of it. She has devolved to being his creative crutch, while he has moved on to another woman.

He is shown to be very intimate and manipulative with her, and Winslet effectively conveys her hopelessness at resisting what little attention he gives her. In sweeping camera movements in full Bridget Jones-esque mode, we see Iris crumble at the announcement that he is engaged to be married to the girl he dumped her for. She is inconsolable but completely aware of how unhealthy his "friendship" is to her. Winslet's character is clearly the girl's girl of the piece.

And then there is the American Amanda, played by Cameron Diaz. Cameron Diaz is never quite going to pull off the girl's girl, rom-com lead effect. She is far too tall, thin and blonde. She has a sort of goofiness that endears her though, and her character is clearly meant to be the less typical of the two. She is emotionally stunted and sabotages her relationships. We see her ending a long term relationship without shedding a tear, and we learn that she in fact cannot cry. Amanda is a film trailer editor, and this adds a few cute moments to the film as she always gets the "movie guy" voice over in her head with mental images of the trailer of how her life is going. She is very unhappy, but not sure how to express it or change her ways.

Amanda and Iris both decide they need to get away from their unhappy lives for the holidays, fast. They simultaneously log on to the world wide web, and hey presto, house swap kismet! Winslet's cosy cottage in the Cotswalds countryside appeals to Diaz, plus "they speak English there" (who knew!). They agree to swap houses for a fortnight.

The differences in the two climes are amusingly shown, as Iris arrives at the warm, palatial splendour of the L.A. house, Amanda is dumped unceremoniously a few miles down the snowy lane from Iris's cottage. The cosy, snowy scene becomes more and more inappropriate for the California girl. The cottage is cold, the sleepy town dead, and she can barely drive down the road, not unsurprising as it seems to be the snowiest town there has ever been in England. She is packing her bags to leave when ding dong... (that's the doorbell...rung by Jude Law!)

I must admit when I saw the previews for this film the main thing that put me off it was Mr. Law. I have enjoyed performances of his in the past (The Talented Mr.Ripley, Cold Mountain), but the overkill of his private life in the press (which to be fair is not his fault), and a few turkeys in recent years have made me less inclined to want to watch him. Well I have to say humble pie on this one. He is a good enough actor to make you forget all of that, and the fact that he has thus far avoided the easy potential of a romantic comedy is probably a credit to him as he is really a natural at it. He plays Graham, Iris's brother, who occasionally crashes on her couch after too many tipples down the very quaint country pub. His character is possibly the most well rounded in the film, as what we initially think of him turns out to be wrong. Mr.Law manages to imbue a character that in the wrong hands could have been schmaltzy with genuine pathos.

His chemistry with Cameron Diaz is good. Their overtly sexual relationship slowly becomes something more, although the filmmakers clearly took advantage of the public desire to see Miss Diaz in her skivvies which, for me was overkill but I suppose there has to be something in it for the boys! The portrayal of rural England is limited to gorgeous snowy towns and cottages, but for me this was transporting and romantic. Maybe I was just in the mood, I would say it's not nearly as blatantly cutesy as Bridget Jones, it did make me want to visit the Cotswolds though!

The California storyline with Winslet has a bit more to it, as Iris's self esteem issues seem to go quite deep. Rather than restore her confidence with a new romance, she needs to re-establish who she is, find herself, etc. Winslet is an actress with enough gravitas to make the character very empathetic even when at her most pathetic. She becomes friends with an elderly neighbour, a former Hollywood writer called Arthur, played by veteran actor Eli Wallach. Again, in what might have been overly sentimental, this storyline manages a gentle humour as the two gain strength from each other's friendship.

At the same time, film score composer Miles (Jack Black), emerges as a potential love interest. He already has a girlfriend, though, to create a spanner in the works. His relationship with Iris begins as a friendship, and while I did like them together, Jack Black still reverts to mugging from time to time which does break suspension of disbelief. Although that said his humour is presumably his most attractive feature so I can see why they allowed some of that in. He is quite like-able and shows more vulnerability in this film that I have seen before.

The relative simplicity of the English storyline, with the main obstacles being the character's willingness to change their lives to let love in, contrasts a bit with the California storyline which at times feels mildly convoluted. The stakes of the romance are higher in the English storyline, it just feels more dramatic. The Kate Winslet character's story is as much about her regaining her confidence as it is the romance. I enjoyed both as the performances throughout are very good, and gave the film many different nuances. There is plenty of successful light humour in the film, which I particularly enjoyed.

I don't know what else to say, really. I liked this film a lot, it is far better than 99.9% of similar films I have seen recently. Despite the fairly contrived setup, it creates likeable, believable characters and plot lines. It is sweet and funny, occasionally poignant enough to get a wee tear in the eye, and made me feel warm and fuzzy, the litmus test for these films. It might have a chocolate box portrayal of the small English town, everyone is quite well off in this film, etc., but it is nowhere near as bracingly stereotypical as a Richard Curtis film. I will say other films by this director have left me cold so don't hold those against it.

My main critique is that it is a bit overlong at 138 minutes, they could have trimmed a bit to make it more pacey. That said I enjoyed watching it throughout, and it is essentially two films in one so it makes sense it's longer than the average film. I will happily add this to my DVD collection when it is released, a good romantic comedy is a very rare thing these days.

Summary: A must see for anyone who likes this genre, and maybe even if you don't!