135) The Holiday

The Holiday (2006)

Director: Nancy Meyers

Starring: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslett, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach, Rufus Sewell

Kate watches movies differently to me. She has this core group of about half a dozen films which she watches again and again. When she needs a break she'll go for one of them, a known commodity, rather than trying something different. One of these films is The Holiday. In her words, she knows it's crap but she loves it. We'd had a pretty full on busy Saturday and were zonked so our intended date night became take-away Indian and a DVD, Kate's choice, at home. Kate chose The Holiday. It was the second time this week she'd watched it.

Hollywood film trailer editor Amanda (Diaz) and British journalist Iris (Winslett) have both hit a low point in man troubles. Both deciding that they need to take a break over Christmas, they find each other on a house swapping website and before you know it Iris is living the high life in LA LA-land and Amanda is adjusting to the quiet serenity of the English countryside. However, little did they know that on the other side of the world, love was just around the corner (I'm quite proud of that sentence. That's a movie trailer sentence if ever I've heard one. Go on, read it again in the movie trailer voice.) When Iris's brother Graeme (Law) shows up drunk on his sister's, now Amanda's, doorstep the two strike up an instant rapport (they sleep with each other). Iris also strikes up a friendship with film composer Miles, who drops by Amanda's, now her, place to collect a laptop his composing partner left there.

In a film which is effectively two narratives running side by side, it makes sense that you would gravitate towards one rather than the other. In my case (and Kate's case, and just about everyone I know who has seen this film's case) I gravitated towards Iris's story rather than Amanda. Not only is Iris just lovely, the more interesting stuff happens on her side of the story. Jude Law's Graeme is alright, and the whole single-parent thing is quite touching, but Iris and Miles (I know. Jack Black as a charming romantic lead. Who'd have thought that would work?) just has a bit more spark to it. Cameron Diaz's Amanda is just a bit to prissy and annoying for my liking. Plus the whole 'Amanda can't cry' sub-plot is a bit groan worthy and results in a painfully predictable climax which kind of puts a dampener on the end of the film. If she has so much trouble crying why doesn't she just whack herself in the nose? Should do the trick.

Maybe it's because I'm male and therefore not a part of the target demographic, but I gravitated towards plot lines outside of the central love story. I really liked Eli Wallach as Iris's new found next door neighbour Arthur. He is a legendary Hollywood screenwriter who, because he is ashamed of his frailty, refuses to attend an event the Screenwriters Guild wants to hold in his honour. Iris being the good hearted soul she is makes it her mission to help him regain the strength in his legs and in his self confidence.

Arthur's presence plays a more important role than just a side story though. He is a key element in this self-conscious, meta-filmness Meyers seems to be going for. As a screenwriter he has a couple of conversations with Iris in which he describes her as though she were a movie character, and talks about her life as though it were a film plot. She is supposed to be the leading lady in her own story, but is always stuck playing the best friend character. On the other side of the narrative you have Amanda, who as a result of her immersion in her work as a film trailer editor is constantly hearing her life narrated to herself as though it were a movie trailer. Thus you get this kind of in-joke with the audience playing on everyones knowledge of film narrative and chick flick genre conventions. As a reviewer in Empire said, it's not going to make Charlie Kauffman lose any sleep, but it's something.

What really stands out about this film is the music. The Holiday has an absolutely amazing score, composed by Hans Zimmer, which you really don't expect from a film in the romantic comedy/chick flick genre. That being said, when one of the film's main characters is a film score composer if the music wasn't top notch the film would be open for criticism.

There is a great little cameo from Dustin Hoffman, playing himself in a video store overhearing Miles and Iris talking about the score for The Graduate. He has only about one second on screen, but it's great and good on him for not being too big headed to do it.

Having now seen it I can concur with Kate's assessment of it. It is a 'lovely' movie. It's good harmless fun, and while it isn't groundbreaking in any way, there are far dumber movies out there. Except for the last 5mins of the Amanda storyline. There is nothing dumber than that.