Meeting Cute Without Borders: The Holiday
Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Jack Black

Review by Breanne Boland December 14, 2006 Issue

Maybe my tolerance and appreciation for happy sappy films grows this time of year. Maybe walking around downtown before the film, with the trees all aglitter and the sidewalks filled with happy families all aglow, wore down my resistance to what I might normally label as schmaltz. But dammit, I liked The Holiday. Generally I’m pretty resistant to the oeuvre of Nancy Meyers (Something’s Gotta Give, What Women Want), but I came out of this one as smiling and charmed as the most diehard romantic comedy fan. Blame the twinkling lights downtown, blame Kate Winslet, but it worked.

Two women, played by Winslet and Cameron Diaz, agree to trade homes to flee their disastrous love lives for an anonymous Christmas holiday abroad. Winslet ends up in a sprawling Los Angeles mansion, awash in sunshine and warm, magical breezes; Diaz finds herself in a rural English cottage in the middle of winter. Away from home, the wounded women relax and begin to repair the man-inflicted damage to their lives. It helps that they both find new suitors within hours of their arrival. Winslet’s brother, played by Jude Law, romances Diaz. Winslet nurses her romantic wounds with Jack Black’s character, a decent, kind musician who commiserates with her about problems of the heart.

While Diaz is the most adorable she’s been since My Best Friend’s Wedding, it’s still Winslet’s story that steals the show. Her exuberance at her warm, posh surroundings and her subplot with Diaz’s neighbor, a 90-year-old Hollywood veteran who chafes at retirement, light up the screen like nothing else in this film. Black’s goofy humor could easily have been wasted in a conventional film like this one, but he tones his act down enough to play a normal person without obliterating the affectations that make him so watchable.

The Diaz/Law side of the film suffers in comparison to Winslet’s luminous cheer, but it’s still sweet watching the damaged woman try to work through her voluminous emotional baggage to finagle a relationship with Law’s secretive bachelor. Still, it sets a more realistic counterpoint to the starry-eyed American side of the film, even if there’s no mystery about whether they’ll be able to make it work. (Hint: this is a romantic comedy opening at Christmas. Now is not the time for blunt applications of harsh reality.)

In unpracticed, uncertain hands, the romantic comedy can quickly thicken to inedible treacle or transform into revolting saccharine. Despite not being a Meyers enthusiast in the past, I can’t deny she managed to turn a fairly complicated, labored concept into a lovely holiday confection. The characters are well written, particularly the women, who are confident and able, despite their shortcomings in dealing with their fellow humans. So often in films like this, the quirks piled on heroines to make them funny also make them seem unlovable or incapable. But here there are no borderline-stalker activities and no ridiculous contrivances. Confection it may be, but the pleasure from this film is entirely guilt-free.

Bottom line: warm and sweet as a mug of hot chocolate

Coming Attractions

Dec. 15th
Eragon - It may well be possible for a dreadful book to be turned into a decent movie. The trappings of traditional fantasy are rehashed in this story of a boy, his dragon, and his destiny. With elves and Jeremy Irons.

Charlotte’s Web - Another retelling of E.B. White’s old favorite. There are echoes of many recent projects — movies of precocious pigs, movies with Dakota Fanning — but the voice casting, which includes Steve Buscemi, Oprah, Andre Benjamin, and John Cleese — might make it tolerable for adults.

The Pursuit of Happyness - Will Smith’s try for an Oscar: Part deux. Smith’s single father pulls himself up by the bootstraps and tries — direly, depressingly, affectingly, actorly - to make a better life for his son.

Dec. 22nd
Rocky Balboa - Sylvester Stallone has decided to make another Rocky movie. Maybe it won’t suck. Maybe Rocky will win this one, or at least win a victory for human dignity. Alas, I will not be able to tell you.

Night at the Museum - Ben Stiller’s smarminess may well be overpowered by the fun and whimsy of the Museum of Natural History coming to life. Come on, rampaging dinosaur skeletons? Leagues of insects and toy soldiers waging war on Stiller? Owen Wilson as a tiny, belligerent cowboy? Merry Christmas indeed.

The Good Shepherd - Matt Damon plays one of the founders of the CIA in this Robert De Niro-helmed film. Damon’s quiet excellence, combined with the timely story about the U.S. and its responsibility to world safety, make this a pretty sure bet.

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