The Holiday

[MacGuffin]

Trailer 1 here.

Trailer 2 here.

Release Date: December 8th, 2006 (wide)

Starring: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach 

Directed by: Nancy Meyers (What Women Want; Something's Gotta Give)

Premise: An American woman with 'man troubles' crosses paths with a British woman from a small English village with a similar dilemma.

[matt35mm]

Another movie that wants to say that all a woman needs is the right man in her life.

However, Kate Winslet and Jack Black make a cool looking couple.  But Cameron Diaz and Jude Law?  They can only look like someone cut out two pictures from People's 50 Most Beautiful and pasted them together.

And they're all white.

[Gold Trumpet]

It is said Nancy Meyers had a hard time coming up for a title to Something's Gotta Give. I guess she is also in charge of creating the posters for her movies.

[Xx]

...

[Ghostboy]

I saw it opening night (!) and all I could think was: it's so damn long! And I'd say it's cutesy to the point of nausea if it wasn't so bland. It's like an airline movie -- anything potentially offensive has been cut out, but in this case it's all been replaced with more bland footage. Chop forty five minutes off the running time and everything involving Eli Wallach, and it might have been passable entertainment, but as it is, it's the worst movie I've seen since Elizabethtown. And like Elizabethtown, it's the sort of movie that is too dumb to make me mad at it.

[Stefen]

Saw this. It sucked. It was like 4 hours long. I only watched it for Kate Winslet and she's hotter than ever here. Cameron Diaz looks like your mom next to her. Best part was when she's looking at a shelf with a billion DVD's to find something to watch and chooses Punch Drunk Love.

[Kal]

Best part was when she's looking at a shelf with a billion DVD's to find something to watch and chooses Punch Drunk Love.

Lets hope PTA saw that and considers Kate for his next film.

[Stefen]

Yeah, because PTA casts all his movies based on acts of randomness.

[private witt]

Up until TWBB, I was pretty sure that PTA had this drive to pull amazing performances out of C-list actors by writing characters that were essentially the Fruedian super-go of the people playing them.  Where do you go after you've hit the ball out of the park with Day-Lewis?  Perhaps continue to search for amazing undiscovered talent like Dillion Freasier?

[Gold Trumpet]

Up until TWBB, I was pretty sure that PTA had this drive to pull amazing performances out of C-list actors by writing characters that were essentially the Fruedian super-go of the people playing them.  Where do you go after you've hit the ball out of the park with Day-Lewis?  Perhaps continue to search for amazing undiscovered talent like Dillion Freasier?

It's general habit for all prominent directors to want to either resurrect the career of aging actors or see the actor within a Hollywood star who has been typecast. Oliver Stone still talks about how he was the first to cast Jamie Foxx in a leading dramatic role and I know other directors who talk about the actors they wish they could have worked with before they died. PTA could continue on his path of working with childhood favorites of his or try to get major actors like Robert De Niro into his films. I don't think there is a plan for either. Personally, I prefer the latter.

[Stefen]

PTA could direct any actor he wants and turn them into the best fucking actor ever. I honestly feel he's got that type of clout right now in terms of directing actors. Fixing Bob De Niro's piece of shit career would be awesome, but I have a feeling it'd be like Burt Reynolds. PTA works his magic, then Bob goes back to making the worst movies ever made.

[private witt]

Personally, I prefer the latter.

Me too. 

[ono]

Agreeing with flagpolespecial here.  I saw this in a theater in late 2006 where I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Always had it in the back of my mind as something I wanted to get later, and was given it as a gift this Christmas on Blu-Ray.

Like Love Actually, it's saccharine sweet, a tad implausable, but joyous.  I didn't find anything too stupid about it myself.  I thought Winslet's interaction with Wallach was winning.  I'm a sucker for movie-within-a-movie motifs, which is why Diaz as a trailer cutter, Winslet picking PDL, and the Hoffman cameo were such nice touches for me, as was Wallach's whole arc.  I actually wished the movie was longer, and that there was a bit more to Winslet's and Black's relationship instead of "You wanna go to England with me? -- Sure!"

Its charm was in trying to depict a true "Holiday," a break from whatever ails you, and in watching it, I found that.  It was like going on a little mini-vacation, experiencing it with the characters, and coming out totally refreshed.  Though we'd seen Diaz's house, I reveled in the discoveries Winslet went through, the luxury of being able to darken a room when you need more sleep.  Yeah, the widower with the two cute-as-a-button girls would be bound to give you cavities, and it's shocking how old Diaz looks compared to Winslet, but I couldn't help but smile through the movie.  One of those great pick-me-ups I file alongside Love Actually and Amelie (though not nearly as great as either, especially Amelie).