‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE SOPPY
The Holiday (12A)
reviewed by David Mahmoudieh at the
UK premier, Leicester Sq, London
You know what they say about holiday romances – they don’t last. Well, Nancy Meyers, director of Father of the Bride and What Women Want aims to prove us wrong, by exploiting the hard-sell of the festive period as the idealistic axis for the current in-office rom-com.
Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet play life-swappers; two contrastingly simultaneous women who have never met, live thousand of miles apart and yet find themselves in the exact same place – both plagued by that age-old proverbial snag: ‘guy-problems’. Fed-up with the turbulence of failed romances, the two women decide they could do with a change of man-less scenery.
So when the Godmanship of Meyers leads neurotic American movie-trailer editor Amanda (Diaz) and clingy newspaper-worker Iris (Winslet) to cross paths at a home-exchange website, both weary hearts impulsively elect to leave all physical and emotional luggage behind and switch homes for the Christmas holiday period. What neither of them know is that rather fortuitously, the elusive Mr. Right is waiting for them on the wrong side of the Atlantic in the form of Iris’s brother Graham (Jude Law) and Amanda’s film-composer friend Miles (Jack Black; complete with impromptu outbursts of weird and unfunny high-pitched singing that’s quickly becoming his rather exhaustive brand).
Of course, the credibility of strangers letting strangers into their clearly-valued lives at the drop of a hat is questionable, but Meyers does put a plausible case forward – mostly thanks to a casting phenomenon. The writer/director revealed that she wrote the screenplay specifically with Diaz, Winslet, Black and Law all in mind. I’ll have some of whatever magic lamp she’s been rubbing.
With all her self-conceived characters seemingly devoted to their vocations as media-industry slaves, you do get the impression Meyers is sticking to what she knows best – either by way of her own subjective or perhaps more observational experiences in juggling the selfless acts of love with the selfish desires of a career.
And such acquired knowledge is not least reflected in a strange if somewhat curious sub-plot involving Iris befriending one of Amanda’s neighbours, Arthur (Eli Wallach, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly), purportedly a 90-year old Oscar-winning screenwriter.
On the whole, I like the idea of what Meyer’s is trying to declare - the notion of how you’re never truly alone in your troubles, that there’s always someone just like you, out there just right now, like two elaborate jigsaw-pieces slotted into the right parts of the wrong puzzle.
The execution isn’t too shabby either. Aesthetically the film is well-staged, well-acted and I guess in one sense even visionary when you consider Meyers wrote, produced and directed.
However, although The Holiday does comprise some alluring moments, it’s way too narcissistic for its own good measure. There’s a glut of completely unrealistic me-to-you dialogue which repeats itself constantly, and the film clearly thinks itself funnier than it really is, seldom injecting any spark or originality into a stale and worn-out genre.
Wallach’s Arthur and Winslet’s Iris do shine a light, sharing an impressive screen affinity, and her romance with Miles is entirely believable – especially when Black shows he can actually restrain himself from screaming at the top of his lungs and act his part decently.
Regrettably, the less rewarding half of the film seems to get the majority share as we witness the at-times distasteful slush of an oblivious Law and overanxious Diaz trying to figure out whether this is just, as per my opening line, another one of those fleeting holiday flings, or indeed the stirrings of true love.
Unfortunately, it takes almost two and a half hours later before they find out. And by then you need a holiday of your own.
© David Mahmoudieh 2006
The Holiday (12A)
reviewed by David Mahmoudieh at the
UK premier, Leicester Sq, London
You know what they say about holiday romances – they don’t last. Well, Nancy Meyers, director of Father of the Bride and What Women Want aims to prove us wrong, by exploiting the hard-sell of the festive period as the idealistic axis for the current in-office rom-com.
Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet play life-swappers; two contrastingly simultaneous women who have never met, live thousand of miles apart and yet find themselves in the exact same place – both plagued by that age-old proverbial snag: ‘guy-problems’. Fed-up with the turbulence of failed romances, the two women decide they could do with a change of man-less scenery.
So when the Godmanship of Meyers leads neurotic American movie-trailer editor Amanda (Diaz) and clingy newspaper-worker Iris (Winslet) to cross paths at a home-exchange website, both weary hearts impulsively elect to leave all physical and emotional luggage behind and switch homes for the Christmas holiday period. What neither of them know is that rather fortuitously, the elusive Mr. Right is waiting for them on the wrong side of the Atlantic in the form of Iris’s brother Graham (Jude Law) and Amanda’s film-composer friend Miles (Jack Black; complete with impromptu outbursts of weird and unfunny high-pitched singing that’s quickly becoming his rather exhaustive brand).
Of course, the credibility of strangers letting strangers into their clearly-valued lives at the drop of a hat is questionable, but Meyers does put a plausible case forward – mostly thanks to a casting phenomenon. The writer/director revealed that she wrote the screenplay specifically with Diaz, Winslet, Black and Law all in mind. I’ll have some of whatever magic lamp she’s been rubbing.
With all her self-conceived characters seemingly devoted to their vocations as media-industry slaves, you do get the impression Meyers is sticking to what she knows best – either by way of her own subjective or perhaps more observational experiences in juggling the selfless acts of love with the selfish desires of a career.
And such acquired knowledge is not least reflected in a strange if somewhat curious sub-plot involving Iris befriending one of Amanda’s neighbours, Arthur (Eli Wallach, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly), purportedly a 90-year old Oscar-winning screenwriter.
On the whole, I like the idea of what Meyer’s is trying to declare - the notion of how you’re never truly alone in your troubles, that there’s always someone just like you, out there just right now, like two elaborate jigsaw-pieces slotted into the right parts of the wrong puzzle.
The execution isn’t too shabby either. Aesthetically the film is well-staged, well-acted and I guess in one sense even visionary when you consider Meyers wrote, produced and directed.
However, although The Holiday does comprise some alluring moments, it’s way too narcissistic for its own good measure. There’s a glut of completely unrealistic me-to-you dialogue which repeats itself constantly, and the film clearly thinks itself funnier than it really is, seldom injecting any spark or originality into a stale and worn-out genre.
Wallach’s Arthur and Winslet’s Iris do shine a light, sharing an impressive screen affinity, and her romance with Miles is entirely believable – especially when Black shows he can actually restrain himself from screaming at the top of his lungs and act his part decently.
Regrettably, the less rewarding half of the film seems to get the majority share as we witness the at-times distasteful slush of an oblivious Law and overanxious Diaz trying to figure out whether this is just, as per my opening line, another one of those fleeting holiday flings, or indeed the stirrings of true love.
Unfortunately, it takes almost two and a half hours later before they find out. And by then you need a holiday of your own.
© David Mahmoudieh 2006
posted by David Mahmoudieh at 8:38 AM
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