The Holiday
Holidays are times of the season to visit loved ones, be close to the ones that love you, and stay in touch with the long lost loved ones. This season could not have come at a more inappropriate time for Amanda (Cameron Diaz) and Iris (Kate Winslet). Amanda has just violently broken up with her boyfriend while Iris has just had her heart broken while the man she has loved for three years has recently announced his engagement to another woman. The two confused and flustered women begin to ponder their separate love lives and pursue a week alone in a distant country. As the two women meet on the Internet and decide to swap houses for the week, the cliched redundancies of a typical romantic comedy begin to set in motion. Surprisingly, the characters that were once your typically cute archetypes suddenly become characters with a heart, a lesson, and a purpose.
As “The Holiday” begins, it’s initially hard to deal with the dual story-lines of Amanda and Iris. As both women start developing new love interests, the film finally manages to kick into high gear. Iris’s love interest during her trip to LA is the flashy musical score composer Miles (Jack Black). As for Amanda’s new interest, Jude Law plays Graham, a fun loving guy with a deeper past than the audience will see at first glance. Graham plays upon the stuck up and drastically uptight character of Amanda, which Cameron Diaz is unsurprisingly, but thankfully perfect for. It becomes easy to see that with the swap of lifestyles, there is also a swap of many other elements that symbolically help the film shine not simply within the parallels of the lives between the two women.
As far as the rest of the impressive cast goes, Jack Black ended up as a sweet and lovable character without being too corny or showy. Even Jude Law shines as a mysterious character from which we eventually learn much about family morals. Law performs a character for which the audience garners much disgust for at first, but soon emerges with greater importance than he may be given credit for. Still, the man who takes the cake is Eli Wallach. Eli plays Arthur Abbott, a retired Hollywood writer who reminisces to Iris about his past glory days. Even though, Arthur has arguable claims about today’s Hollywood state, he spends most of his time developing a meaningful and very lovable relationship with Iris. As Iris begins to care for the man due to his health, Arthur tugs at the hearts of the audience with his quick wit and beautiful messages about life’s journey.
Overall, the messages within “The Holiday” are generous and important to its audience. There is much to appreciate within this film, especially an uproarious celebrity cameo you won’t want to miss. This charming holiday gem, even with an oversize runtime, is still a winner within the confines of a pleasing story.
The Holiday
Rated PG-13 for sexual content and some strong language
Runtime: 138 min.
Starring: Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, and Jack Black
Directed by Nancy Meyers
