The Holiday

A Christmas romantic comedy. If those words are enough to put you off this film then stop reading and move along now. This is a carefully and deliberately constructed and unrealistic feel good, light-hearted film from Nancy Myers, the woman behind As Good as it Gets and What Women Want. Then again that’s not to say it’s without its charm and at the end of the day I enjoyed it but then again I’m a sucker for these kinds of films. Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz play women who, for different reasons, want to leave their lives behind over the Christmas period and who find each other on a house-swapping website (cue some rather pointless web-chat conversations) and end up in each others homes. Winslet, a journalist loves her new Beverly Hills mansion and Diaz (a film trailer editor, no really) likes the peace a quiet of the British countryside. Needless to say that despite the fact the women went away to swear off men, they soon find local interests, with Diaz it’s Winslet’s brother Jude Law and for Winslet it’s Jack Black in an overly restrained role as a film composer. From here on it it’s pretty obvious sailing, but like I said Myers is good at constructing the films people respond to and there is a good nature to this film that makes it likeable, rather than some marketing gimmick stretched out to feature length. The film also has plenty of entertaining moments that make its overly long runtime pass quickly. It could be so easy to be cynical and turn on this film for many reasons, but to be honest I liked it. I think that whatever the cynics say there is a place in cinema for such sugar-sweet films. Serious dramas have their place as do political commentaries, but at a time like Christmas this is the movie equivalent of snuggling up on the sofa with a hut mug of cocoa and who can argue with that? Predictable to the end and trite this still manages to entertain thanks to a good hearted nature and some energetic performances. Hardly original but does what it does well.