Amazon.co.uk Review
As a pleasant dose of holiday cheer,
The Holiday is a lovable love story with all the Christmas trimmings. In the capable hands of writer-director Nancy Meyers (making her first romantic comedy since
Something's Gotta Give), it all begins when two successful yet unhappy women connect through a home-swapping website, and decide to trade houses for the Christmas holiday in a mutual effort to forget their man troubles. Iris (Kate Winslet) is a London-based journalist who lives in a picture-postcard cottage in Surrey, and Amanda (Cameron Diaz) owns a movie-trailer production company (leading her to cutely imagine most of her life as a "coming attraction") and lives in a posh mansion in Beverly Hills. Iris is heartbroken from unrequited love with a cad of a colleague (Rufus Sewell), and Amanda has just broken up with her cheating boyfriend (Edward Burns), so their home-swapping offers mutual downtime to reassess their love lives. This being a Nancy Meyers movie (where everything is fabulously decorated and romantic wish-fulfillment is virtually guaranteed), Amanda hooks up with Iris's charming brother Graham (Jude Law), and Iris is unexpectedly smitten with Miles (Jack Black), a super-nice film composer on the downside of a failing relationship.
--Jeff Shannon
Synopsis
Iris (Kate Winslet) is a British journalist caught in a cycle of unrequited love with her co-worker, Jasper (Rufus Sewell). Jasper does his best to lead her on, and when he announces his engagement to another woman in the office, Iris is crushed. Meanwhile, across the pond, Amanda (Cameron Diaz) is a highly-strung film trailer editor who has just ended her relationship with Ethan (Edward Burns) after he accuses her of being emotionally unavailable. And, oh yes, he has sort of been sleeping with his receptionist. Broken-hearted, Amanda and Iris make contact through a holiday website and agree to swap homes for two weeks to escape their disastrous personal lives. Iris takes off for Amanda’s lavish L.A. pad, while Amanda arrives at Iris’ picturesque cottage right outside London. When Iris’ brother Graham (Jude Law) knocks at the door one night looking for his sister, he instead encounters Amanda, and sparks soon fly--despite the fact that they both know she won't be in town for long. Iris, for her part, is busy mending her heart in sunny California, befriending Amanda’s elderly neighbour, and making the acquaintance of film composer Miles (Jack Black.) But her healing is abruptly interrupted when Jasper suddenly appears on her doorstep, having flown halfway round the world to make sure he still has her under his spell. An ocean apart, Iris and Amanda find themselves at the crux of all rom-com crises: how to follow your heart, while still being true to yourself. Fans of the genre will no doubt find Winslet's thespian charms, Law's dimples, and the high-fashion wardrobes quite enough to give them their chick-flick fix.
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