While no one would certainly be wrong in calling The Holiday formulaic and predictable, they would be foolish to look over two qualities that place it above most romantic comedies - It's brain and its heart. Here we have the very rare romantic comedy that is actually driven by characters, relationships, and the dialogue that they have with one another. This is a welcome change from so many films in the genre that rely on the Idiot Plot, and try to think of "clever" ways to keep the main characters apart from each other for the length of the entire movie. Writer-director Nancy Meyers (Something's Gotta Give, What Women Want) has crafted a very sweet and immensely likeable film that works because it understands its characters, and has them talk about real things. I walked in expecting a pleasant diversion, and walked out quite pleasantly surprised that The Holiday has a bit more on its mind than being your usual Yuletide fluff.

Amanda (Cameron Diaz) and Iris (Kate Winslet) are two women who live on different sides of the world, but both are in desperate need in a change of scenery. Amanda, who is a Hollywood ad executive in L.A., has just broken up with her unfaithful boyfriend (Edward Burns), and Iris, a journalist over in England, is not doing very well coming to grips with the fact that the man she has longed for the past three years (Rufus Sewell) is set to be engaged with another woman. While surfing the Internet for a far off getaway, Amanda happens to see an ad placed by Iris who wishes to "switch lives" with someone else in the hopes of simply escaping from their individual problems. For two weeks, Amanda will live in Iris' cozy English cottage, while Iris will come to L.A. and live in Amanda's mansion home. Not long after the two women switch homes, two men enter their individual lives who may offer a fresh start after their previous failed relationships. For Amanda, she meets with Iris' charming brother Graham (Jude Law) shortly after arriving, and quickly realizes that there is a definite connection. As for Iris in L.A., she finds herself drawn to a sweet young film music composer named Miles (Jack Black), and even strikes up a friendship with an old man who lives nearby named Arthur (Eli Wallach), who is a legendary screenwriter from the golden age of Hollywood.

The central romance and the whole "life swapping" idea that drives the central plot of The Holiday could have been horribly contrived and tacky in the wrong hands. The screenplay wisely is able to avoid most "fish out of water" jokes as the women try to adjust to their new lives, although Meyers can't help but put at least a couple into her script, such as when Amanda has trouble driving down the opposite side of the street when she's in England. Thankfully, the movie does it best to steer clear of the usual contrivances we've come to expect, and instead gives us two separate relationships that are given a generous amount of time to develop, thanks to Meyers' often smart and real dialogue. The characters are given ample opportunity to grow and develop so that we can learn to like them, know them, and feel a certain connection to them. The individual relationships that both Amanda and Iris find themselves in are also treated with the same amount of care. Although at first I felt that Amanda's relationship with Graham was going a bit too fast, it does eventually become very satisfying when we realize that there is much more to Graham than just being a charming and handsome man who prefers a one night stand to a long-term relationship, which is how he at first comes across. Graham is eventually able to come across as a real person with genuine feelings and emotions, as is Amanda, and we begin to realize just how they can work as a couple. And although Iris' relationship with Miles gets less screen time than Amanda's, we are still able to develop a genuine affection for the characters and actually want to see them get together by the end. That's because the movie is able to rise above the standard cliche romantic comedy formula of the characters having a "meet cute", then they face a crisis that threatens to break them apart forever, only to have them go rushing back into each other's arms, either in the rain or at an airport moments before one of them is about to leave.

Perhaps the reason why The Holiday is able to avoid the standard cliches of the genre is because it understands that they are cliches, and has the characters actually talk about the formulas of movies in their dialogue. This is the first time I've actually heard a movie acknowledge a meeting between two characters as a "meet cute" in its dialogue. More than the two main relationships that carry the movie, it is the sweet and honest relationship between Iris and Arthur, the aging screenwriter, that really took me completely by surprise. Here is a movie where characters can talk about their love of movies, and not have it come across as corny or satirical. These references to other movies in the film's dialogue are not satirical or "hip" in any way, but rather, we feel like we are listening to a conversation about two people who love the art of film. This is a glorious thing, and I often found myself nodding my head in agreement with many of their conversations. I also love the way that the character of Miles gives some much needed respect to often overlooked film composers in his dialogue, since he is a film composer himself. There is a scene in a video store where Miles is talking about great music scores, past and present, with Iris, and although the scene comes dangerously close to being overly cute (especially a funny, but somewhat cheesy, cameo from Dustin Hoffman), we can still sense the genuine love in the dialogue for the topic at hand. It's very rare that a movie actually have its characters talk about their love of movies, and the power that they can hold on an audience. Other films have been quoted in dialogue before, or they've acknowledged cliches, but this is the most genuine depiction of film love that I've seen in a movie in a while.

It certainly helps that the cast is great all around, with hardly a weak link to be found. Both Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet are charming and funny, although Winslet won me over just a bit more. She came across as slightly more sympathetic all the way through, whereas Diaz seemed a bit over the top during the film's first half, only to have her character become more grounded in reality as the film went on. I did like some of the fantasy touches with her character, such as how she envisions the events of her life as a movie trailer from time to time, complete with an announcer. Winslet is also much better at body language, and expressing the sheer joy she experiences when she is exploring her new temporary home, or when she finally comes to a realization about the previous man in her life before she met Miles. As for the male leads, Jude Law is likeable throughout, and becomes even more so when the script reveals a few extra details to help us sympathize with him more. Jack Black gives a surprisingly sweet and vulnerable turn as Miles, proving that he certainly has what it takes to be a serious leading man. (A role I personally would like to see him pursue after seeing this film.) Finally, Eli Wallach gets many of the film's best scenes as the aging screenwriter who befriends Iris. His dialogue where he talks about the old days of Hollywood compared to today come across as tender and honest, instead of spiteful.

The Holiday is a prime example that a movie can be mostly predictable, but still surprise you in some other ways. I've often said a formula movie can still work as long as it's made well, and care has been put into it. Here is a formula movie that actually respects the intelligence of the audience and does not dumb itself down on our behalf. The characters act like human beings, talk about things that we don't usually hear people talk about in movies, and have dialogue with each other that serves a much greater benefit than to just drive the plot along. The Holiday understands that even a formula movie needs a strong human voice so that it connect with the audience. The voice that carries this movie is strong, much stronger than I initially anticipated.

One Final Note to my Readers: I'd like to apologize for the lack of updates lately. I've been fighting a cold, so I haven't been able to update as regularly as usual. But, I've reached the point of recovery, so you can expect reviews of Apocalypto and Blood Diamond soon.

See the movie times in my area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

2 comments