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The Holiday
USA, 2006
[Nancy Myers]
Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach, Edward Burns
Romance / Comedy
19th November  2006
What if you could just take off and leave everything behind in the name of escaping your broken heart, your cheating boyfriend and your multimillion-dollar home in Los Angeles? What if you could escape your miserable existence as a single career-girl and flee from having to watch the man you love (who, incidentally doesn�t love you back and never will) marry another woman? Would you do it?

In
The Holiday, written and directed by Nancy Meyers (whose past projects include What Women Want and Something�s Gotta Give), Kate Winslet plays Iris, a journalist suffering from unrequited love, and Cameron Diaz plays Amanda, a workaholic owner and head of an L.A.-based movie advertising firm who has just dumped her boyfriend for cheating on her with his assistant. Having had enough with her busy, workaholic lifestyle and her recent romantic woes, Amanda impulsively decides to escape to a place where she can be alone to read actual books, not magazines, and eat carbs without wanting to kill herself. Oh, and she also wants to go where the natives speak English. Now where would that be, I wonder?

Initiating a house-swap with Iris on a web site connecting people who would like to trade homes for a temporary period of time, Amanda packs her bags and trades in her lavish L.A. mansion for Iris�s so-cozy-it-belongs-on-a-Christmas-card cottage in Surrey. Before trading with Iris, however, Amanda asks if there are any men where she lives. Having experienced heartbreak of her own, Iris responds with a resounding �No.� Amanda replies, �Perfect.� But oops! Iris forgets to mention her stunningly handsome older brother, Graham, played by none other than the oh-so-yummy Jude Law. I think we all know where this is heading.

On the American side of the Atlantic, Iris goes through some self-discovery of her own as she befriends an old man who is a neighbor of Amanda�s and also makes friends with one of Amanda�s underlings, Miles (played by Jack Black). Helping each other through their respective romantic crises, subtle sparks begin to fly between Iris and Miles. Again, I think we all know where this is heading.

Filled with female escapist fantasies of leaving it all behind and finding love where we least expect to find it,
The Holiday is a harmless (read: predictable), romantic comedy starring very attractive people and very cute little girls with British accents (did I mention Jude Law plays a widower who is also a father of two in this one?). The runtime at 2 hours and 15 minutes is a bit long, but you get two romantic comedies in one. I would have preferred that they spent a little more time on Iris�s story, however, because it had more dimensions to it in the way of self-discovery as opposed to Amanda�s which was relatively straightforward and was a bit more self-involved. The movie sags a bit in the middle, but overall if you�re looking for something to take the edge off movies like Apocalypto (which I heard was extremely violent), or just to unwind from holiday stress, this movie fits the bill.
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