Christmas 2020 Reviews: Day 18 - The Holiday (2006)

The Holiday is a weird one for me. It's the first cinematically released Christmas film I'm looking at this year, as opposed to the previous films I've reviewed so far, which were all made for TV or Netflix. As for the film itself, there are a lot of things in it that shouldn't work, some things that don't work, and yet... well, I'll explain.

The plot of The Holiday is essentially "what if you made Love Actually, but only about five people instead of the two hundred Love Actually seemed to have? So there are five main people we're following here: Kate Winslet is Iris, Cameron Diaz is Amanda, Jude Law is Graham, Jack Black is Miles and Eli Wallach is Arthur. Iris works for an English newspaper, where she has been in love with her co-worker (played by Rufus Sewell) for the last five years, and is devastated after he gets engaged to someone else. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Amanda has just dumped her cheating boyfriend (Edward Burns) and wants to get away from work for a while, as it consumes her life. She meets Iris online, and the pair agree to house swap for two weeks: Iris will stay in Amanda's L.A. mansion, and Amanda will stay in Iris's cottage in Surrey. Both want to get away from men.

Yet while staying in the other persons home, both women meet men who make their holidays far more meaningful. Amanda meets Graham, Iris's older brother and the pair immediately hit it off, although Graham has a big secret. In L.A., Iris meets Miles, a film score composer, and Arthur, an elderly retired screenwriter who was once acclaimed for his work in Hollywood.

This film is very cheesy, and not very realistic in terms of these characters lifestyles, but there is something undeniably sweet about it.

Amanda and Graham are probably what most people go into this film, wanting and expecting: a fluffy romance set at Christmas time. Cameron Diaz's acting is a bit over the top at times, but she is a likeable leading lady, and works well as Amanda. She also has very good chemistry with Jude Law as Graham, who I'm sorry to say is just a bit too perfect. Perhaps (or definitely) it's the cynic in me speaking here, but I don't believe a man that looks like that can be that perfectly lovely, sincere and charming, to the point that it does feel very much like I'm watching a fantasy. When the film attempts to give him flaws, those still turn around somehow to make his character seem even lovelier. The film even calls him "Graham", one of the least sexy names out there, and he still pulls it off. However, his arc with Amanda is sweet, and they make a nice pair. If you're looking for a romance to escape into rather than one to aspire to have, then you'll like these parts of the film very much, I'm sure.

Kate Winslet as Iris is the best part of this film for me. She brings such sincerity to Iris, and the heartbreak she is going through, while also showing her to be kind, and excited to be in America for the first time. While Amanda's plot is a love story, Iris's tale is one of a woman learning to be okay again after having her heart broken. The latter feels more authentic, and as a woman, it's refreshing to see this kind of storyline play out, especially after all the romance-based viewing I've done this winter.

Jack Black plays Iris's potential love interest, Miles. This is a very interesting choice. I believe this is the only romantic leading role he's had in a romantic dramedy, in his entire acting career. He's fine, although unlike Kate Winslet as Iris, I don't think he's irreplaceable in this role. For example, I recently heard someone say that they thought Jason Segel would have been better as Miles than Black. I won't lie, I haven't been able to get that out of my head when thinking of this film ever since. I think he would have been really good. He's comedic, but also able to play dramatic moments well, and without meaning to sound like a massive douchebag here, I believe he's more compatible with Winslet in terms of physical appearance.

But let's not make this about appearances.

While Miles and Iris are set up to become a romantic couple (not a spoiler, the poster implies that), they both spend the majority of the film wanting other people. Their conclusion feels slow and well-earned though, without being as dramatic and showy as Amanda's ending with Graham. I do think that's a nice way of showing the different personalities of these two women. Miles as a character is rather sweet, and perhaps thanks to Black's portrayal, seems to be a more sincere kind of man than Graham. He's a respectable potential partner for Iris.

Although I've spoken quite a bit about Miles in relation to Iris, he actually feels very much like a secondary element in her plot. The real co-star alongside Winslet as Iris is Eli Wallach as Arthur, a once successful, now retired Hollywood screenwriter. Iris rebuilds her own confidence by helping Eli rebuild his, and it is a joy to watch. These two share wonderful, friendly chemistry, and this part of Iris's arc is more investing than her part with Miles, at least in my opinion. It's also nice and unique to see a friendship develop between two people with a large age gap. It would be good to see more of that.

I don't know why she and Eli insist that Cary Grant was from Surrey though. He wasn't.

On a negative note, the comedy can be off at times. There's a scene where Amanda drives a UK car for the first time, and because the steering and roads are the opposite to what she's used to, she struggles quite badly with it. In the next scene however, we see Iris driving around in America without a hitch. It just seems odd that all that effort was put into Amanda's driving scene (and to be honest, it's one of the weakest comedic points in the film) and no consideration was put into how Iris finds driving in America. Additionally, this scene just wasn't that funny.

When I said before that Cameron Diaz could be a bit over the top at times, this is especially prevalent in her comedy, as well as in some of Black's. I like the idea of the scene where Miles is in the DVD shop with Iris, but the execution was just a bit much.

Overall, this film has something for everyone in it. That can be a good thing, but I do feel that some people will have a strong preference to Iris's parts over Amanda's, or vice versa. It's a light, harmless film that you can watch any time of the year (it's set at Christmas but isn't obviously festive) and I think it has potential as a fun, guilty pleasure.

THE SCOREBOARD

Would I recommend this film? Ultimately, yes. Honestly though? I didn't care for this film the first couple of times I saw it. I thought -and still think- that Amanda and Graham's part is just a bit too Hollywood sickly sweet for the average audience member to enjoy. If you love cinema-style romance though, you'll love this.

Christmas quote of the film: "I have willingly loved that man for over three miserable years! The absolute worst years of my life. The worst Christmas's, the worst Birthday's, New Years Eve's brought in by tears and Valium. These years that I have been in love have been the darkest days of my life. All because I've been cursed by being in love with a man who does not and will not love me back" - Iris.

Film rating: 6/10