{"id":8649,"date":"2024-11-24T10:39:46","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T15:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8649"},"modified":"2024-11-24T10:39:46","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T15:39:46","slug":"the-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/24\/the-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"The Holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Holiday <\/strong>(2006)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 138 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (sexual content and some strong language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Nancy Meyers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Nancy Meyers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Hans Zimmer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dean Cundey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 8, 2006 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach, Edward Burns, Rufus Sewell, Miffy Englefield, Emma Pritchard, Sarah Parish, Shannyn Sossamon, Bill Macy, Shelley Berman, Kathryn Hahn, John Krasinski.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $63M (US)\/$205.8M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0I can\u2019t believe I didn\u2019t see The Holiday<\/strong> at the cinema. It would have been the perfect holiday date movie with my wife-to-be. Instead, we saw Blood Diamond. Great movie, but it\u2019s hardly a romantic time at the movies. Hey, even Movie Guy gets it wrong on occasion.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If you love the star-studded Christmas rom-com comedy Love Actually (which I do), then you should check out The Holiday<\/strong>, an absolutely charmer of a film from writer-director Nancy Meyers (Something\u2019s Gotta Give). While it\u2019s not an all-star affair, it features amazing performances from its four leads and a wonderful supporting one from Eli Wallach (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly).<\/p>\n

\u00a0The premise has two ladies with romantic woes, one from the US and the other from the UK, switching homes for the Christmas holiday. Newspaper reporter Iris (Winslet, Titanic) can\u2019t get her ex Jasper (Sewell, A Knight\u2019s Tale) out of her mind or her life. Despite him cheating on her and never treating her right, she\u2019s still in love with the guy. She\u2019s devastated when he announces his engagement at the office Christmas party. Meanwhile in L.A., movie trailer producer Amanda (Diaz, My Best Friend\u2019s Wedding) dumps her boyfriend Ethan (Burns, 15 Minutes) after he cheats on her. It\u2019s hard to say how devastated she is as she hasn\u2019t cried since she was a teenager.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Looking for an immediate change of scenery, Amanda finds Iris\u2019 cottage in Surrey on a home swap website. She contacts Iris and the two make arrangements to stay in each other\u2019s homes for the next two weeks starting the next day. It\u2019s going to be a holiday to remember for both of them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It isn\u2019t easy at first for Amanda. She\u2019s put off by the quiet and isolation of the English countryside. She considers returning to L.A., but changes her mind when she meets Iris\u2019 charming brother Graham (Law, The Talented Mr. Ripley). He shows up drunk at the cottage late one night looking for a place to crash. Amanda lets him in and before you know it, they sleep together. She doesn\u2019t want to fall in love with him, especially since she\u2019ll be leaving in less than two weeks, but the heart wants what the heart wants.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Iris loves her temporary news digs in the States, a spacious house with a swimming pool and home entertainment system to die for. She befriends her elderly neighbor Arthur (Wallach), a retired screenwriter from the Golden Age of Hollywood. After hearing her story, he recommends a list of old movies featuring strong female characters. He encourages her to be \u201cthe leading lady of her own life\u201d. After three years of seeing a therapist, it\u2019s the best advice she’s ever received. In addition, Iris grows close to Miles (Black, School of Rock), a film composer with romantic troubles of his own. He\u2019s dating an actress (Sossamon, A Knight\u2019s Tale) who\u2019s not as into him as he is her.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As is standard for the genre, various complications rear their heads. Amanda suspects Graham of being a womanizer with him taking calls from other women, presumably other lovers. Naturally, she\u2019s wrong. The truth is something completely different and completely unexpected, but something that lends a sweetly tragic element to Graham’s character. Iris wants to move forward with her life, one without Jasper, but can\u2019t break free from his spell even with an ocean between them. She needs to find her leading lady strength and tap into it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There’s a nice subplot about Arthur’s reluctance to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screenwriter’s Guild. They want to throw a lavish black-tie ceremony in his honor, but he doesn’t want to participate because of his frail health. It’s a good thing Iris is there to help the sweet old man through his crisis. That leads to one of my favorite aspects of The Holiday<\/strong>. There are a lot of references to the film industry and various celebrities. I can’t think of another movie that references Irene Dunne, Vangelis and Ennio Morricone. There’s a scene at a Blockbuster Video featuring a hilarious surprise cameo by a famous actor. At various points, a voiceover from Hal Douglas relates significant events in Amanda\u2019s narrative. You might not know the name, but you definitely know the voice. You\u2019ve heard it in thousands of movie trailers and TV commercials.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Holiday<\/strong> is a rom-com through and through, but it also incorporates fish out of water tropes with its female protagonists trying to adjust to different cultures. Amanda trying to get the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road is a riot. Iris can’t believe the luxurious surroundings in Amanda’s house. With the press of a button, she can lower panels over the bedroom windows and block out every bit of light. Then there\u2019s the drama. The Holiday<\/strong> centers on good people who come to realize they deserve better than crummy relationships that only make them unhappy. Iris needs a man who appreciates her. Amanda must learn how to feel again if she wants a relationship that works.<\/p>\n

The four leads have never been so appealing as they are in The Holiday<\/strong>. They all play decent characters, Law in particular. His meet-cute with Amanda might have been unorthodox with them all over each other within minutes of meeting. However, he\u2019s respectful enough to not take advantage of her later after a night of heavy drinking at the pub. He stays over to make sure she\u2019s okay. Miles is a good guy too. We don\u2019t get to see this sweet, sedate side of Black too often. It\u2019s nice how he and Winslet\u2019s character commiserate over being on the wrong side of unrequited love. Winslet and Diaz are simply wonderful. The real standout, however, is 91YO Wallach. His character is the wise old man we all want as a friend and wingman.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Here’s the bottom line. The Holiday<\/strong> is a delight from start to finish. It’s a legit feel-good movie. Meyers knows her way around one of those with titles like Father of the Bride (1991), Irreconcilable Differences (1984) and Baby Boom (1987). I can’t believe that I waited so long to sit down and watch it. I really should have seen this at the movies. Well, that’s what streaming is for, right? I can’t think of a better way to spend the holiday than watching The Holiday<\/strong> with somebody special.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Holiday (2006)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 138 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (sexual content and some strong language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Nancy Meyers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Nancy Meyers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Hans Zimmer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dean Cundey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 8, 2006 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach, Edward Burns, Rufus Sewell, Miffy Englefield, Emma Pritchard, Sarah Parish, Shannyn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-holiday-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-Holiday-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8649"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9053,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8649\/revisions\/9053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}