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The Holiday
PLOT Two women, lives in crisis thanks to the men in them, decide to swap homes for the Christmas period. Each then go on to meet a different, local man and develop varying degrees of attraction.
Iris (Kate Winslet) is a reporter for the Telegraph. She lives in a little cottage, in a tiny hamlet, in Surrey - it's a very stereotypical looking English cottage in the middle of English country side and a nearby small village. If it wasn't so picturesque it'd be insultingly stereotypical. She has just arrived in LA, leaving unrequited lover Jasper in England. (Cue the 'this house is so big' scene that was inevitable) Over the next two weeks she meets several of the locals, developing a great friendship with an old man, Arthur Abbott (Eli Wallach). It turns out he's more than just a frail old man, he used to be a movie author in the time when Hollywood was about more than just Box Office ratings. He teaches her a lot, and together they prepare him for an award ceremony in his honour. She also meets a much younger man, Miles (Jack Black). At first
she ignores him somewhat, after all she is not quite over a man in England, and he has a girlfriend. But things change.
Amanda (Cameron Diaz) lives in LA and works in movie trailer production. She has just arrived at the cold, middle of no where, country cottage and wonders what there is to do next (not much!). She's left behind the cheating ex-boyfriend Ethan in LA. It seems Iris didn't have time to tell people she was jetting of to LA, so Amanda receives a visit from her very drunk big brother Graham (Jude Law) in the middle of the night. What starts off as one drunken night turns into a friendship and then slightly more. But there is always something hanging over their heads - in a few days she'll be going home, so against anything they want, it can't get serious. In theory.
OPINION Cast Almost everybody in this movie is a big name star who is famous for being something special. While none of them (except two, who I'll get to) deliver extraordinary performances, no one gives a weak performance. The notable one is Jack Black. I'm not a fan of his at all based on what I had seen previous - the joker, stupid comedy guy from things like Nacho Libre and School of Rock. His character in this movie is very different - sensible and serious minded, he doesn't make a stupid joke throughout the whole movie, instead being quite the charmer. The other noteworthy character/actor was that of Arthur Abbott. He delivers some fantastic one liners, mostly about the history of Hollywood or about Iris herself, and every single one of these is true and makes you think, and often smile.
One such quote: In the movies, we have leading ladies and we have the best friend. You, I can tell, are a leading lady, but for some reason, you're behaving like the best friend.
Soundtrack Given that the character list in this movie includes two maestros and several other movie music people, it just had to have a great soundtrack! The majority of the movie is accompanied by an instrumental score in varying tones of intensity and simplicity to reflect the action on screen. At other times there are upbeat modern tracks, such as Winter Wonderland.
Storyline There are very strange subplots running through the movie, like Amanda's inability to cry was just weird. These didn't seem to add much at all to the story but just give you something more to try and follow. There are some nice unexpected twists to the movie, which obviously I'm not about to tell you, but they do lead to some very touching scenes between the characters on screen.
Romance? Comedy? While very romantic in places, this movie doesn't stand up to the 'comedy' aspect it was marketed as. There are a handful of laughs throughout, but that's all. The laughs are fairly evenly spread across all of the characters, rather than one being the main focus.
OVERALL On the whole, this movie is very believable and doesn't have too many plot holes. It was an enjoyable 138 minutes that I spent watching it. Sometimes England does come off looking badly though - being too small and too old fashioned, and everyone with very posh accents, but then maybe that's how they think of us! I'm not sure I'd go out and buy the DVD, but I might rent it if I'm in the mood.
The movie has a 12A rating, and has some very mild sex scenes and some language in it. It was released into UK theatres on 8th December 2006.
Pictures of The Holiday (DVD)
The Holiday
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Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
As a pleasant dose of holiday cheer,The Holidayis a lovable love story with all the ... more
Christmas trimmings. In the capable hands of writer-director Nancy Meyers (making her first romantic comedy sinceSomething's Gotta Give), it all begins when two success...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Temporarily out of stock. Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon...
As a pleasant dose of holiday cheer,The Holidayis a lovable love story with all the ... more
Christmas trimmings. In the capable hands of writer-director Nancy Meyers (making her first romantic comedy sinceSomething's Gotta Give), it all begins when two success...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Meet Iris (Kate Winslet) and Amanda (Cameron Diaz), two women who couldn't be more ... more
different - one lives in a cosy English cottage, the other in a swanky Hollywood estate - but who are alike in their mutual bad luck with men.In desperate need of an esc...
Advantages: Some nice performances and assured direction. Disadvantages: Some clumsy Americanisms in the dialogue and too little chemsitry in some relationships.
afy9mab 12.03.2007 (12.03.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The Holiday (DVD)
Advantages: Brilliant moral lesson to be earned out of the movie- MINUS the intense heavy and boring stuff! Disadvantages: Not as Romantic as I expected!
diamond_sparkles 22.06.2009 (15.07.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Last Holiday (DVD)
![The Holiday [DVD] [2006]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78099917.jpg "The Holiday [DVD] [2006]")
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