Writer-director Nancy Myers has created a modern masterpiece in the delightful romance The Holiday. Not only are there extremely likable characters, a storyline that belongs in a fairytale book, fun and fitting music, great performances, and relationships that make us believe in love again, but it takes place at Christmastime! Everything's better at Christmas—how many terrible movies have we all sat through just because they take place in December?—and you can now add a modern classic to your box of black-and-white films you watch every holiday season.Kate Winslet opens the film with a poignant narration about the different types of love, and a montage overlay introduces us to all the characters in the film. Then we see Kate at her office Christmas party, pining away for her former lover, Rufus Sewell. If there's a woman in the audience who doesn't swallow a lump in her throat inspired by their rapport together, that woman should turn off the film and only resume it after she's had her heart broken. The dialogue is so realistic it's painful, and Kate's expressions are absolutely perfect.Next, we meet Cameron Diaz, who's having a terrible fight with her boyfriend, Edward Burns. It's a wonderful introduction to her character as well, because even though she appears to be tough and not as sensitive as Kate Winslet, we see subtleties that indicate she has deep feelings in her she's been repressing for a long time.Without describing every single scene—which I could absolutely do, since I've seen this movie close to a hundred times—I'll get to the main plot. Kate and Cameron swap houses for the Christmas holiday, taking spontaneous vacations from their lives and getting a second chance when they need it the most. Kate is awed by Los Angeles and the sunshine, and she meets new friends Eli Wallach and Jack Black, both in the film industry. Cameron is a little frustrated by the snow and English countryside, but when Jude Law turns up on her doorstep—literally—she remembers what vacations are for.One remarkable thing about this movie is it manages to take three actors, whom I normally dislike so much so that I try to avoid their movies, and completely change my mind about them. With the exception of the film Carnage, which I hadn't seen until years later, I've usually found Kate Winslet's acting style irritating. At the time of its release, The Holiday was the best acting she'd ever done. She's the heart of the movie, and through her moving performance, women everywhere will believe they'll survive after their heart's been broken. I'm the first to admit that my animosity towards Cameron Diaz had everything to do with her similarity to a rival in high school, but when I watched The Holiday, I completely forgot about the teenager who tried to steal my sweetheart. Cameron shows off her acting chops in this film, and as her character grows, she helps the audience vicariously grow. Jude Law, while normally drawn to upsetting roles, plays a character who should have been named "Every Woman's Fantasy." Everything you ever wanted in a man, but deep down know you'll never get, is represented by Jude in this film. If you don't develop a massive crush on him, you must have very bad taste. Plus, he's very believable when he speaks his unbelievable lines, which is a testament to his acting.I've always liked Jack Black, so while The Holiday didn't change my mind about him, it did show me another side to his acting. He's extremely convincing as an L.A. Hollywood type, and the mixture of his confidence and uncertainty adds another layer to his character. Eli Wallach, at ninety years old, still has a wonderful screen presence. His scenes are some of the most touching, and the film wouldn't be the same without him.The dual-settings of the film provide an ideal Christmas for everyone in the audience, so whether you like the sun or the snow, you'll be happy. Hans Zimmer's music, to quote Jack Black in the film, is "very unexpected", and it adds to the delight of the film, making it clear that someone should snatch up the rights and turn this into a Broadway musical! I absolutely love every part of this movie. It's funny, charming, sad, realistic, inspiring, heartwarming, and irresistible. It's simply wonderful, no matter what time of year you watch it.DLM warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, there's one tiny part of the movie in which the camera spins in a circle. After Jack Black and Kate Winslet sing "Arthur is a doodle-y-doo" on the piano, look away for about ten seconds. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

This week I chose to watch The Holiday (2006). The logline goes "Two women troubled with guy-problems swap homes in each other's countries, where they each meet a local guy and fall in love." This movie made me feel sympathetic towards the main characters as they went through their respective issues. It made me think about the state of the world when it comes to relationships. The editing was good and was pretty seamless. This marks the best editors. As I watched through this movie I found the sound design to be very intentional. There was a heavy play of dialogue and music, and most of the rest of the sound effects were subtle and seemed distant in comparison. This directing choice to keep the dialogue and music as the auditory objects of focus played well to a dialogue centric movie. However, I did find in certain parts that the absence of sound effects in favor of music felt a little strange in some parts, like when the girls were first exploring the homes. I would have liked to hear more sound effects through those parts. Otherwise I thought it was great.

The Holiday (2006): Dir: Nancy Meyers / Cast: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach: Feel-good romantic comedy about escaping emotional stress and embracing new challenges and successes. Cameron Diaz plays a Hollywood producer who just ended a bad relationship. Kate Winslet learns at an office Christmas party that the guy she always fancied is engaged. Crushed, both women decide to swap houses for the holiday. Directed by Nancy Meyers who made a film of similar nature called Something's Gotta Give where two opposites end up sharing space. Here she goes beyond typical clichés and creates two subplots that contain surprise developments such as the fact that Law has two special girls in his life. Diaz and Winslet are perfectly matched and play off the humour well. Jude Law plays Winslet's brother whom romances Diaz thus arising certain questions. Jack Black turns up and strikes up a friendship with Winslet and shares his love for music and movie scores. Eli Wallach makes an appearance as an aged Hollywood screenwriter whom Winslet befriends. While some elements are predictable, such as its turn out, it is still entertaining with many funny moments. It is easily one of Nancy Meyers's best films in a long line of romantic comedies. It stresses the need to get away from stress and seek new opportunities. Score: 9 / 10

Screenwriter/director Nancy Meyers continues to defy all romantic comedy conventions by doing a few things that are often missed by screenwriters of the genre. Instead of focusing on incredulous romances and meet-cutes, Meyers is quick to focus on the characters involved in these on-screen relationships, developing them by closely following their mannerisms before they become involved in the film's core romances. Secondly, she places emphasis on the dialog of the characters while they are in these relationships, rather than their actions, and even if circumstantial incredulity comes into play, you almost miss it because Meyers crafts such likable on-screen presences that it isn't so blatantly obvious that they are saying and doing things that are a bit too playful with narrative conveniences. Finally, the emphasis on conversation and character relationships helps Meyers naturally include humor and wittiness to a screenplay that would otherwise try too hard to be funny or relevant.The end result is The Holiday, a very natural romantic comedy, with a quartet of strong performers and a story that takes its time to build over the course of two hours. Interestingly enough, most romantic comedies exhaust themselves past the one-hundred minute mark, but The Holiday defies convention by taking a liberal amount of time to illustrate two brewing romances on opposite sides of the world that all began because of adventurous feelings by two introverts.The film opens by introducing two characters, Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet), a column editor for a newspaper in London and Amanda Woods (Cameron Diaz), a movie trailer producer in Los Angeles. Iris has been in love with her coworker Jasper Bloom (Rufus Sewell) for over three years, despite him cheating on her when they were dating and that her love has gone unrequited. Iris winds up becoming more upset when she learns Jasper is engaged and she, well into her thirties, is still single. Amanda, however, has been a workaholic since the startup of her company, and the result has taken a toll on her live-in boyfriend (Edward Burns), who packs up and moves out after he reveals she has been cheating on her.Both women are in need of a vacation, and upon discovering one another on a chat-room, they agree to a "house swap," where Iris will go live in Amanda's spacious, Los Angeles mansion and Amanda will live in Iris' small London cottage over the course of the holiday season. During her stay in Los Angeles, Iris meets an elderly man named Arthur Abbott (Eli Wallach), who was once a screenwriter during the Golden Age of Hollywood, in addition to Miles (Jack Black), a charming employee of Amanda's who has an obsession with films scores. Meanwhile in London, after initially slugging away at wine and holiday snacks, a drunk Amanda winds up meeting Iris' brother Graham (Jude Law) when he, also drunk, knocks on her door one night expecting Iris. The two commit to having a one-night stand, but when they realize their dynamic and chemistry is something neither of them can deny, the morning after becomes that much more complicated, especially when Graham allows Amanda to meet his kids.The Holiday ostensibly sets itself up for immediate failure by focusing on two separate romances. That narrative structure is a constant problem with romance films because they struggle in trying to humanize and develop both relationships under a reasonable amount of time. For Meyers, time never seems to be a factor; she starts liberally, by revealing more about the characters through their mannerisms and their choices rather than by with whom they interact before inviting the love-interest into the picture. By including characters like Amanda's ex-boyfriend and Wallach's ex-screenwriter character, Meyers also shows that she has more on her mind than simply cranking out a dime-a-dozen love story. She wants to populate a film with characters that simultaneously mean something and fill a film with a great deal of entertainment value.The result is a film that's breezily paced, but never fluffed, remarkably charming, but never saccharine, and humbly emotional, and never manipulative. This is largely thanks to Meyers' screen writing, but also thanks to the talented cast of performers, specifically Winslet and Black who are trying to break out of their own character archetypes throughout the entire film. Consider Winslet's character, who could easily be a faceless, mopey spinster. Instead, Winslet is a deeply sympathetic character because she's not dysfunctional nor is she a comical trainwreck. Consider the scene where Iris is beside herself, talking with Miles about the perils and the unrelenting sadness of unrequited love and it how strips not just a piece, but several pieces, from your ability to love, trust, and sympathize with people. It's a truly sad monologue that Meyers wisely doesn't choose to milk for tears, but rather, pure, unadulterated honesty.Meanwhile, Black gives a performance that is perhaps his most delightful mixed of controlled chaos yet. While he is more restrained and casual here, his zealous, roly-poly tendencies sneak in on various occasions, particularly the video store scene where he brilliant recites harmonies and melodies of film scores. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law serve as the more predictable couple, though that's not a bad thing, for they are the narrative anchor that keeps the film from taking off into another world. You're bound to have a preferred couple watching The Holiday, and for me, the insights and the consistent charm of both Winslet and Black's characters was an instant winner for me.With all that in mind, The Holiday works as a very lovable piece of entertainment, and furthers Nancy Meyers' status as one of the smartest female directors working in the business today. Her careful craft when it comes to assembling a romantic comedy is shown with every character in the film, and rather than cluttering Holiday with useless caricatures or sticking to a basic love quartet, she surprises on multiple levels, effectively giving most audience members more than they expected.