The Holiday

First of all, here at JM we are not against any movie genre, because no genre is brilliance proof, even romantic comedy aka «chick flick», Sina did shed a tear over «city of angels» and «sleepless in Seattle», and «When Harry meets Sally» are amongst my favorite, but what about «The Holiday» a movie which a Hollywood executive would explain by saying «Four weddings and a funeral meets there Is something about Mary».

«there is something about mary» leads us to Cameron Diaz, the former model turned actress which was revealed by this movie, in «The Holiday» she plays Amanda Woods an L.A woman too successful for her own good, who did not cry since she was fifteen, lives in a mansion, and has looks to die for, but on the flipside She has a disastrous romantic life, where she suffers a bad breakup during holidays season, So she decides to go for two week holiday to the furthest and quietest possible place, a three clicks online search leads her to a home exchange website where she finds out about a nice cottage in Surrey proposed for a home swapping, the cottage is owned by Iris

Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet) is the anti thesis of an L.A girl, she is too British for her own good, the kind of girl to own all the records by Dido, but her romantic life is as disastrous as Amandas's, suffering the only thing worst to a breakup during the season, so they both agree, and the Californian ends up in freezing Surrey, and the British in sunny LA. Both girls make interesting encounters Name meets Graham (Jude Law) a British bachelor with manners and wit and a secret, and Name meets Miles (Jack Black) a movie score composer who can't put the right tune on the soundtrack of his life, and also meets Arthur (Eli Wallach) a guy who was there during Hollywood golden age and lived to tell her the story, both of course kind off re discover love and themselves and the meaning of life and whatever .

Okay girls, I know you love movies like these, but this one is far too pink even to the Celine Dion crowd, everybody knows that these movies are well crafted marketing ploys designed to attract the «sex and the city» demographics and their huge buying power, but please, I never thought i'd say this, but this movie makes «Desperate Housewives» look like «Casablanca», the interesting idea of the juxtaposition of LA life with British life is lost in endless kissing scenes and senseless dialogues, and the romances unconvincing, Eli Wallach for god's sake, the guy who played «The Ugly» in «The good, the bad and the ugly» seems to be wondering what He is doing in this mess, but can't blame him though he did if for the check, so did Jack Black off course who plays a part worthy of a Telenovela actor.

And while Cameron Diaz drags the movie down with her unconvincing character, Kate Winslet counterbalance it to a certain extent, her character is more interesting, but not even to the level of a Kate Hudson, or Sandra Bullock, and frankly it's not even a compliment.

So look, If you are a boy, it's a good plan to watch with your wife or girlfriend if you have the needed patience, and if you are a girl, it's a good breakup relief, or for an afternoon with your girlfriends, but if you happen to also love movies, toss this off the window, and go watch «closer» which is what this movie aspires (and fails) to be, in all cases, remember that these are only romantic comedies, so please don't take life lessons from them, because if you map your life over a romantic comedy, granted that you will end up lonely in the holiday season, with nobody to swap your apartment with.

Year: 2006
Director: Nancy Meyer
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Eli Wallach, Jake Black