The Holiday

The Holiday is a movie about 2 people (Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz) who have quite a bit in common except for the fact that they've fallen out with men in someway or another. They decide to exchange houses for their Xmas holidays, and what ensues is that they meet people (ableit a sense of boredom felt by them both at the start) and through that they change themselves, and learn not to cling on things that have been haunting them in the past.

Kate Winslet plays Iris, a woman who's been in love with her ex-boyfriend for 3 years now, and in many ways still clinging on to him and fails to realise that he's using her. Cameron Diaz plays Amanda, a wokaholic, who has not been able to cry since she was 15 years old, and has been unable to connect with anyone emotionally. The men that they meet in their holidays, Graham (played by Jude Law), and Miles (Jack Black), charm them in many ways, and they start falling for each other.

The movie's a romantic comedy, and in many ways it works. It gives you this warm feeling by the end of the movie, and you are always rooting for a happy ending, even though you know one is coming at the end. The script is far from cheesy or cliched, in fact it plays around those cliches especially since Amanda is situated in LA where the heart of the movie industry is. And to me, its because of that, the movie works. This movie could have been easily another one of those corny romantic movies, but it isn't.

Aside from the fact that it is primarily a romantic comedy, I felt that the most important theme in this movie was about how people should change. Both women are so haunted by their past, that they won't let it go. It's only appropriate when Arthur (Iris' neighbour when she lives in LA) says to her in reference to her ex-boyfriend, 'in the movies, we have a leading lady, and a best friend. You are playing the best friend. You shouldn't be. You should be playing the leading lady'.

The acting performances are commendable, but Kate Winslet and Jack Black stood out for me. I feel that Kate Winslet has come a long way from her performance in the Titanic (which I personally felt she was not great in that movie), and after performances from 'Finding Neverland' and 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', she has really established herself as one of the best actresses in Hollywood at the moment. Jack Black for me, gives his best performance yet. He's usually all screwball comedy (as Roger Ebert would put it), but in this movie, he strikes a balance.

For me, this movie was a rather good holiday movie. It is far from being one of those commercial movies, and I would strongly recommend it.

Rating: 3.8/5

Written by Kevin Lau