The Holiday (2007) - Movie
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Movie Plot |
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Iris is in love with a man who is about to marry another woman. Across the globe, Amanda realises the man she lives with has been unfaithful. Two women who have never met and live 6000 miles apart, find themselves in the exact same place. They meet online at a home exchange website and impulsively switch homes for the holiday. Iris moves into Amanda's L.A. house in sunny California as Amanda arrives in the snow covered English countryside.
User's Review and Ratings |
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Good Movie for Those Who Don't Believe In Love
0 of 1 people found this review helpful
What I loved most: The idea of home exchange and the crazy weather!!
What I really hated: Hanging Ending
I've always love Kate Winslet & Jude Law's charm and poise. While Jack Black & Cameron Diaz's humor has never fail to make me at least smile coz I know I'm pretty hard to please. Love love love the starting scene where Iris and the rest of Daily Telegraph staff celebrated not only the Christmas Party but the news of the newly-engaged Jasper & Sarah. The look on Iris when Jasper made eye contact with her says everything in a woman's life. The director, Nancy Meyers being a woman...naturally knows how to convey the message in her movies. Though I felt Iris's over and not really sincere crying when she's at home. She looks totally different from the time she had to swallow very hard on the suprise Christmas Party news of the engagement and when she's at home. Well I guess some people can cry, feed their dog and post their house on a home exchange website all at once. Hemm....both houses I have to comment was very very nice and suit each character wisely. I have to agree that Law-Diaz chemistry on screen and especially for this movie, is believeable...I mean they way they tell their complicated story is as real as anyone would encounter in life. However, the Winslet-Black chemistry to me feels like a meet cute....too good to be true...nevertheless, a big applause to their hardwork. The 2 little girls - Sophie & Olivia just complete the complicated relationship that Amanda & Graham has but I adore both girls...especially when all of them were just lying down in their tent...both sisters were talking as if Amanda & Graham are not there..so cute. I must say that all the movies Nancy Meyer has done, she loves to show off the best sceneries in her movies like what she did with "Something Gotta Give".....the beach view, the Hamptons house...its all so so nice and it makes you want to got travelling to those places. Like this movie, you could see all the colors of LA....nice flowers, hacienda kinda houses and the crazy weather of course. Its like she's telling her audience, there's no where best to live than LA...it has everything there....good weather, nice houses, celebrities, good food and best of all - DVD rental available! Overall, its a nice movie to watch over and over again...with friends or alone so that for those who do not believe in love to re-think what they actually want in life deep deep inside through those broken heart holes...
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CO's Review |
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From the writer-director who gave us "What Women Want" and "Something's Gotta Give" comes another rom-com about women who are really trying to get away from themselves. Sure, Nancy Meyers really knows what women want and she gives it to us in her own way - all wrapped up in sweet but complicated Yuletide decor.
The only trouble is that "The Holiday" -- shot in a 135-minute footage -- takes ages to 'unwrap' and by the time it is done, it is already New Year's Eve!
Meyer's plot is about two women swapping homes across the Atlantic for the Christmas holidays just so that they can get away from their failed romances. British journalist Iris (Kate Winslet) is suffering from a case of unrequited love for a colleague (Rufus Sewell) who doesn't even have the courtesy to tell her that he is getting engaged to the girl in the circulation department. Movie trailer producer Amanda (Cameron Diaz), on the other hand, loses her mind and soul after finding out that her beau (Ed Burns) has cheated on her.
A few clicks on an Internet website later, Amanda and Iris have swapped homes so that they can be 'miserably alone' for the Christmas holidays. At Amanda's palatial mansion in Los Angeles, Iris makes friends with 90-year-old scriptwriter Arthur (Eli Wallach in a touching role) and starts a romance with music composer Miles (Jack Black). At Iris's cottage in Surrey, Amanda runs into Iris's drunk brother Graham (Jude Law) and wastes no time jumping into bed with him (foreplay, she says, is 'over-rated').
So here we are: two love stories for the price of one! Meyers takes her own sweet time developing and expanding each of them while we were asking "Isn't it Christmas yet?" during each sequence. Well, don't get me wrong. Most of the romantic encounters and comedic devices are rather delightful and even funny. There is a nice element of surprise when Amanda visits Graham's home unannounced and finds his 'Sophie' and 'Olivia'; while the mental flashes of her life story as corny movie trailers are fun to watch.
Over in L.A., Black provides his usual blend of comic relief, humming soundtracks of famous movies (like those of "Jaws" and "The Graduate") while a veteran actor (guess who!) looks on in dismay. However, unlike the Diaz-Law pairing, Black seems miscast as Iris' love interest. Why, there seems to be more screen chemistry between Winslet and Wallach than with Black. Still, we must credit Meyers for some 'laugh-out-loud' moments like that three-way conversation in which Iris inadvertently rants at the wrong person.
Comedies, like good documentaries, should be short and sweet and Meyers could have easily done away with some superfluous scenes. Apparently, she must have been carried away by the situations and characters she has managed to flesh out so well.
Women and dating couples should have an enjoyable time with this "Holiday".
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 Cameron Diaz |  Cameron Diaz |  Cameron Diaz | ||
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