The Holiday Movie Review - Written and Directed by Nancy Meyers

A formulaic romantic comedy, The Holiday is surprisingly adequate in its genre. From the director of What Women Want and Something’s Gotta Give, this film is not quite as predictable as the previews make it looks-but almost.

The basic storyline: two women swap homes for two weeks around Christmastime in attempts to trade their messed-up lives for something more enviable. Amanda (Cameron Diaz) is a savvy, successful woman working in the film industry out of a stunning home in Los Angeles. She responds to an online home-swap ad posted by Iris (Kate Winslet), who is a frazzled, lovelorn journalist living in the quaint Rosehill cottage, just outside of London.

On holiday from their lives (and broken relationships with men), both women stumble upon love interests early on in the film. Graham (Jude Law), who is actually Iris’s brother, stops by the countryside cottage one night looking for his sister, but soon finds himself in the arms of Amanda. They decide to call it a one-night stand and forget about the potential complications of actually falling for each other. But, as Hollywood fate would have it, they run into each other again, and again-and again.

Meanwhile, Miles (Jack Black), who is somehow already dating an attractive actress (?), becomes friends with the optimistic Iris, who is desperately trying to get over her three-year unrequited-love affair with a bloke from home. Their attraction to one another is not as obvious, but Meyers’s direction hints at a future for Iris and Miles, despite their current situations.

In case you were wondering: no, Jack Black is not believable in this role. As a love interest, Black can act his socks (and shoes) off, and the audience will still only see him as the pudgy chap in a wrestling leotard from Nacho Libre. Despite this hangup, the character, Miles, is sensitive enough to suggest that an attractive woman could possibly fall for him.