DVD Review: The Holiday

By Frankie Dees Mar 13, 2007, 18:04 GMT

Movie trailer editor, Amanda of Los Angeles, CA and journalist Iris of Surrey, England live five thousand miles apart and have never met, but are dealing with the same problem: men. Amanda having just broken up with her cheating boyfriend, Ethan and Iris having pined for her ex, Jasper, becoming engaged to the woman he left her for decide to take a vacation during Christmas. They come upon a website ...more

Rom-com filmmaker queen Nancy Meyers (‘Something’s Gotta Give’ and ‘What Women Want’) gathers a star-studded cast that includes Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black in her latest bid at the intelligent women’s romance picture, a rom-com that leaves a little breathing room for mature interaction. 

Nancy Meyers is who I consider to be the smart woman’s Nora Ephron (‘Sleepless in Seattle’ and ‘You’ve Got Mail’) in that they both are (or were) successful filmmakers who also seem to have a great affinity for their own written words. That Nancy Meyer’s work generally tends to be better regarded by the opposite sex of the intended demographic and therefore more widely praised is probably due to stronger male characters (i.e. jackasses). Mel Gibson and Jack Nicholson were easily relatable characters for men and the requisite romance they were involved in with their respective films were sufferable because of these two charismatic actors and their written faults.

That ‘The Holiday’ is a slight departure in this regard - the male characters are the supporting players and gasp!, with nary a fault to be seen – may have had something to do with it’s disappointing returns this past winter where her two previous films had enjoyed tremendous success. Guys are much more inclined to be dragged to movies of this nature when they know they have a perspective being shared on screen and this film doesn’t really provide that with the exception of a few shining scenes with Jack Black in which he’s able to show his stuff.

 Now that I’ve gotten my male perspective preface out of the way lest anyone question my maleness, let’s move on. To note: I find Cameron Diaz grating in almost everything she does and I find Kate Winslet absolutely adorable in almost everything she does (yep, including ‘Heavenly Creatures’) and my feelings are pretty much the same regarding the male counterparts - I’ll leave you to wonder whether it’s Jude Law or Jack Black I find adorable…so with that said, I’m going in pretty even-handed.

Lovelorn Iris (Kate Winslet) is completely head over heels in love with her on-again, off-again co-worker Jasper (Rufus Sewell who was perfectly cast) with the always delightful backdrop of a London newsroom. Its obvious Jasper sees her as someone he can always come back to, a gal to be filler in between the women he truly wants to sleep with. Smug at every opportunity, Jasper seems content to wipe his feet on her and lead her along. He knows she’s obsessed with him and he feeds that obsession just enough to never lose it.

When Jasper announces his engagement to a coworker, a hussy (my wife’s words, I found her a rather nice, innocuous gal) at the company Christmas party, the devastation in Iris’s eyes is immense as she tries to keep composure with the whole of the company staring. This incident retires her back to her only in the movies English countryside cottage where she drinks, covers herself in blankets, and sobs uncontrollably as only the best scorned women can. 

Meanwhile, across the pond in L.A., we find the financially successful Amanda (Cameron Diaz). Owning her own post-production company that seems to specialize in cutting movie trailers, she seems to live the good life with a extravagant home with sunlight pouring in at every postmodern angle and a smarmy boyfriend Ethan (Edward Burns) who tears around L.A. in his Porsche – a lease no doubt.

With the not too surprising disclosure that Ethan might be sleeping with his assistant, Amanda throws Ethan out in his boxers where the poor guy has to mope to his Porsche to make his exit. The glitz and glamour and sunlight and palm trees prove too much for Amanda as she wants to feel despicable in her post break-up mindset so she hits the internet for a respite from her woes. Through the rather capitalist-thinking google search, she finds a quaint English countryside cottage available in a house-exchange program where her posed instant message is speedily returned by Iris who also finds this the perfect time to get away for a while. How fortuitous.

Never meeting, they seemingly cross in the air as they each arrive at the other’s abode. Amanda becomes the fish out of the water where the usual ditzy blond-driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road problems ensue. Once settled in, she realizes that idleness is not for her and she becomes restless (a fact we realize earlier as we’re being subjected to a damn near intolerable montage of her looking for things to keep her occupied all the while a mutt dog stares up at her in boredom).

Fate knocks on the door, however, where she finds the drunken and wholly charming Graham (Jude Law) who sometimes makes his way over to his sisters to crash after a hard night at the pub. Immediately attracted to him, she poses an invite that doesn’t quite make her a role model for young girls. With this new interest, she decides to stick around a little longer to see what she can make of this possible ladies’ man.

Iris arrives at the front gates of Amanda’s house in awe where a deliriously happy bed-jumping sequence is soon to follow. Iris is more than content with her new digs and settles down for a relaxing vacation where chance leads her to two new men in her life. 
Spotting an elderly neighbor roam the neighborhood, she helps him back to his house where she finds out that Arthur (Eli Wallach) was a famous screenwriter. His ancient place is riddled with priceless, dusty awards and as he settles into his favorite recliner and a TV dinner, she decides to ask him out to dinner for good conversation.

She also meets Miles (Jack Black), a sweet and unassuming film composer and a friend of Ethan’s who dropped by to pick up some of his stuff. The two seem to share a connection, but he can’t seem to look past his trophy actress girlfriend who he thinks he’s lucky to have. Helping Arthur build the confidence he needs to make a speech at an honor in his benefit while slowly realizing Miles may be more than a friend is put at a stand-still when Iris finds Jasper suddenly appearing at her doorstep, bleeding heart in tow.

Clocking in at a rather weighty 136 minutes, the film would have benefitted immensely from trimming the fat a bit. Meyers seems to have fallen a little too in love with her own film and didn’t excise where it was absolutely needed. Scenes linger and the flow is hampered. If Richard Curtis is able to successfully give us 7 or 8 subplots in ‘Love Actually’ that runs one minute less than ‘The Holiday’, then one might wonder how 2 stories could possibly justify the length. I note this only because there’s a better film here somewhere short a half hour. I suppose it could be entirely subjective though considering my wife had no problem blubbering through the last 30 minutes…

Direction is solid and Meyers is at the top of her game as far as setting up a scene of playful banter. The movie trailer fantasy elements were a superfluous distraction for me, though, and not particularly funny. Diaz was already in prime wild-eyed mode, the last thing she needed was fantastical elements to react to. A minor quibble though.

Hans Zimmer provides a nice score with the difficult job of not only writing the actual film score but also the scores that Jack Black’s character plays in the film. Essentially, some characters needed two themes with enough disparity as to be recognized as such but also similar to form a sort of subtle synergy.

The performances were all competent to great with Kate Winslet and Jack Black easily shouldering most of the weight as it was their story I was most intrigued by. Winslet proves to be quite charming in anything and even earns a chuckle or two here. Black has toned down his shtick considerably but he manages to slip a few quips in there and his jaunt through Blockbuster with Iris almost proves to be worth the price of admission alone as he a cappella’s his way through various film scores with a nod to Hans Zimmer’s own ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ score. 

I have never warmed to Diaz and she doesn’t really win me over here. Her pronounced arms-flailing speeches, her trademark goofy grin, and her numerous pratfalls are all present and accounted for here and if you’ve liked her in the past with these roles, you’ll like her here. Jude Law basically shows up and looks pretty but he gets a few nice scenes later in the film – granted, scenes that make me wonder if I could do push-ups with only my eyeballs after the substantial eye-rolling workout they put me through. Luckily, Eli Wallach adds a dash of class to the proceedings and turns in a heartfelt performance even if his story seemed the most expendable.

The film is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen and is enhanced for widescreen televisions. Special features include an insomnia-curing commentary with director Nancy Meyers, composer Hans Zimmer, Production Designer Jon Hutman, and editor Joe Hutshing. Hey, I love a technical commentary track as much as the next guy but Sleepy, Sneezy, Dopey and Grumpy were a bit too much too handle…some nice tidbits here and there though. The only other feature is an 18-minute featurette ‘Foreign Exchange: The Making of The Holiday’ with the usual interviews and on-set footage.

‘The Holiday’ is an easy recommend for women and more than serviceable for the fellows. It’s got some good laughs, some clever dialogue and a genial tone that, had the length been shaved a bit, might have entranced me a little easier. The stars show up to play and Meyers knows her way around a romantic comedy so for fans of these types of films and for fans of the cast, grab a hankie and a blanket.

The Holiday is now available at Amazon. It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a March 26th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.